Second Choices
by Daemon faerie queen
Summary: The sequel to The Path Of Dreams. Sarah has to complete a new Labyrinth for an offer she cannot refuse...(complete)
1. Only magic

Disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth or any of its characters. Any characters not in the film belong to me. Any places not in the film belong to me. So hands off :p  
  
I dedicate this to all my friends and especially Miss Hollie and Miss Emma.  
  
Chapter I   
  
Sarah turned out the light in Toby's room after tucking him into bed. She lingered in the doorway and watched his peacefully slumbering form. It had become a habit, and she always feared that the sudden snap of that switch would banish him from the world once more.  
  
Sighing, she wrenched her feet from the spot and crossed the landing into her bedroom. Textbooks and piles of paper lay strewn across her duvet for she was now back to school. A new year; twice the amount of homework. Karen had yet again dragged her father out for another Saturday night. Where, this time, she could never be sure. Bingo, dancing, restaurant, cabaret...name it, they had probably done it. But Sarah had been to places worth bragging about, and she had never told a soul. True, her parents had noticed a change in her. They took her appreciation as a sign of growing up; her fits of tears - they were convinced - were due to some childish crush and would fade away in time.  
  
Sarah gave her dressing table a mournful glance then shook out whatever thought she had made. She jumped onto her bed, landing in the middle of the circle of books, resting on her front and bending her legs into the air. Her eyes scanned the title of her assignment whilst she nibbled on the end of a pen.  
  
'Discuss the theories of the function of dreaming in sleep relating to both biological and psychological terms'  
  
The psychology of the human mind often irritated her, especially since she had experienced a world with no rational explanations for anything. Science was of no interest to this young woman. She had memories that would prove Newton a nutcase.  
  
Sarah's books were covered in doodles, ranging from strange creatures to stars with only three points (two curving downwards like rocket legs), even repeated names that reminded nosy classmates of board games. Anyone catching a glimpse of the inside cover of her maths book would instantly frown at the detailed sketch of a man wearing very strange clothing and bearing a rather undomesticated hairstyle. Yet the picture itself glared so distinctly that none had found the voice to laugh.  
  
Barely having finished the first sentence, Sarah's head lolled onto her open textbook and her eyes began to close.  
  
"I hope you're doing something productive, Sarah."  
  
Her face muffled in the pages, Sarah groaned a sleepy reply of 'Yeah' to the intruding speaker. It took a few moments for the fact to process, her head snapping up.  
  
The man who was the spitting image of the picture in her maths book regarded her from the mirror, eyes cold, lips callously distorted. Two symmetrical streaks of blue nestled in his wild blond hair, the longest strands scattering across familiar apparel. Sarah recognised the burgundy jacket with the stardust on its shoulders, the incongruous collar, its alluring combination of leather and metal and a buckle like a worn crescent. The delicate white shirt, unbuttoned to the breast to reveal his precious heirloom, was the only other garment visible within the frame.  
  
Sarah was speechless. All her past hurt threatened to pour out, pinching her stomach and prickling the whites of her eyes. First this man had taken her brother, now he had stolen her heart. She was able to contain herself enough to swipe the entirety of her schoolwork to the floor, paranoid he would see the adolescent scribble of his face.  
  
"There's no need to be impetuous, Sarah," Jareth said with a click of his tongue. "I thought since you were so kind as to construct my castle, you might want to be the first to try out my new Labyrinth."  
  
"And why would I want to do that?" she replied spitefully.  
  
"I have come to believe that I have something of interest to you."  
  
Sarah folded her arms. "What could you possibly offer me?"  
  
The Goblin King grinned wickedly.  
  
"I can think of something." He leered at her, intentionally allowing his gaze to drift down her female body, but mysteriously lacking mortal perversity.  
  
Sarah reacted to this by bunching up her knees to her chest. Even though she was well covered in her t-shirt and jeans, she could not help but doubt that material was enough to secure her privacy.  
  
"You're wasting your time," she snapped. "My *love* is no more real than yours." Now she was getting him back for the pain he had caused after he had forced her home and left her in pieces. "It's only magic."  
  
"If not for me, perhaps you would consider doing it for your friends?" Jareth said. Seeing her puzzled expression, he produced a crystal in the palm of his hand and held it up for her to see what was inside. Images flickered between the scenes of two creatures, one a large orange-furred monster, the other a small one-eyed fox. Both of them were shackled and being harassed by a company of ugly goblins. "If you should change your mind, I will see to it that they are not harmed. Much."  
  
Sarah's eyes widened. "You're crazy."  
  
"Only for you, my love," Jareth answered, a hissing laugh escaping his jagged teeth.  
  
He watched her slip wearily off the side of her bed, only permitting himself a grin of victory for the seconds her back was turned.  
  
"What do I have to do?" she asked, her frozen features begging to expose her despair.  
  
"I've left you another gift," he said, tilting his head towards the small, round fruit that had materialised on her bedside table. "Your powers of observation really do let you down."  
  
Ignoring the desire to retaliate, Sarah turned to take hold of the object and rotate it with her fingers.  
  
"I don't like peaches," she said sullenly, the vision of a green maggot squirming in the back of her mind.  
  
"People don't always get what they like, Sarah." Jareth shrugged. "But I am bound to this tiresome burden of generosity. Cherries, then."  
  
Sarah hardly had time to transfer her concentration from his face to the bunch of three dark red fruits that replaced the peach in her palm. For a moment she dwelled on the thought that so many of his creations were circular. Bet he couldn't make a pineapple, she thought, though not too loudly. She did not want to grant him the satisfaction of seeing her struggle to eat one.  
  
Sarah ate the cherries one by one, regardless of Jareth's provocative stare, removing the solid stones from their cores each time.  
  
"Now what?" she said, but the response came as the cherry stones leapt from her hand of their own accord and formed a neat row on her carpet.  
  
Bright streams of blue light burst out of their sides, linking the stones together in a beam of electricity, the individual shapes vanishing into the energy chain as it shone brighter. To complete the show, the blue light surged upwards to create a rectangular doorway directly in front of her.  
  
Sarah turned to the mirror but only to find her own image reflected back at her, dark hair un-brushed but not quite as tangled as she feared. Unsure if the door would remain long enough for her to gather supplies, she pocketed some jewellery and opened a drawer to search for the little red book. She could no longer remember all the lines or challenges kept within the story of 'The Labyrinth' and hoped it would help her. But it was not there.  
  
Uttering a frustrated growl at her misfortune, Sarah took a deep breath and ran through the glowing door. 


	2. Old acquaintances

Chapter II  
  
Sarah found herself standing on the same hill where she had been introduced to the Labyrinth, overlooking the barren wastelands with the skeletons of trees. It was very much unchanged except some of the sandier areas had managed to grow patches of green grass and the wintry trees had sprouted some buds on their anorexic twigs. For some reason, life was beginning.  
  
"Here we go again, feet," she said, in more-or-less the same spot she last addressed them, as she sped down towards the looming maze walls.  
  
Someone was sitting nearby. An old woman with silvery hair perched at the edge of a murky pool, the one in which Sarah recalled seeing a dear friend relieve himself on their initial meeting. The woman was rocking back and forth, humming a ditty whilst smoking a pipe - the wrong way around. Very similar to blowing a bubble, the crone was breathing air across the top of the bowl part and whistle-blasts of smoke shot out of the tubular end.  
  
"Excuse me," Sarah asked. "Where is the gate to the Labyrinth?"  
  
The old lady glanced up with milky pink eyes.  
  
"There i'n't a gate. Just wall," she replied, a globule of spittle dribbling from her bottom lip.  
  
"Yes I know it is *now*," Sarah persisted, putting aside her revulsion. "But how do I get in?"  
  
She thought once again about Hoggle and wondered where he was. Glumly, she told herself that he, too, was a prisoner. But why had Jareth not shown him? She prayed that he was unharmed.  
  
"Through the door," came the reply.  
  
"*What* door?"  
  
"The door to the Labyrinth," said the old woman.  
  
"But you just said there wasn't one!"  
  
"That's right, there i'n't."  
  
Sarah stamped her foot and tried to solve the problem. Logic had not succeeded this time. Then maybe her eyes twinkled there was some other way.  
  
"Where isn't the door?" she asked the ancient figure who had recommenced puffing at her backwards pipe.  
  
"It isn't there."   
  
A wrinkled finger pointed towards the outer walls of the maze. A set of iron doors had appeared in the stone.  
  
"Thank you," Sarah said.  
  
"For what?"  
  
But Sarah was done with the woman and was already pushing her way into the start of her journey.  
  
* * * *  
  
Jareth slouched in his throne, one boot resting on a solid gold arm, the other just touching the surface of the floor. His gloved hand flicked through a small red book, under the observation of the prisoner chained against the far wall.  
  
"What an appalling story," he said, not averting his eyes from the delicate pages. "The hideous dwarf gets more mention than the king, and the spoilt princess has everything she wants-."  
  
"That's Sarah's, that is. You've no right!"  
  
"And my eyes are certainly not 'mismatched'," Jareth continued, ignoring the outburst from the man bearing a dented crown and the remnants of a royal robe.  
  
"I'm warning you Jareth!"  
  
The Goblin King put down the book with its gold lettering on the cover that spelled out 'The Labyrinth', and turned to glare at his aged captive.  
  
"Oh do shut up Hogworm. Just because you're a prince now doesn't make you any different to the worthless scab you were before. Look at you; your years have caught up. Anyone would prefer you as a halfling."   
  
Hoggle hung his head and sagged within his bonds, the once golden human hair a thinning clump of white threads plastered to his scalp. Allowing his moment of downfall to pass, he dared to mutter something that no coward would.  
  
"At least she *chose* to kiss *me*."  
  
Jareth leapt from his throne, vanishing in mid-air to reappear at Hoggle's side. Taking the old man by the throat, he slammed him into the polished marble wall, his gaze filled with venom. The bird of prey likeness calmed; a wave of understanding passed between them, and the Goblin King released his grip. Sarah was his. Whether she liked it or not, no matter the competition, he knew she belonged to him.  
  
Having turned away from the prisoner who gasped for breath behind him, Jareth paused in the centre of the room. It was devoid of goblins since they were patrolling the battlements and sneering at the creatures in the dungeons, living out their trivial lives.   
  
"You have a question," he said without so much as a backward glance.  
  
"Why didn't the third part of your promise come true?" the ex-dwarf choked.  
  
Jareth moved to the window, the forked swallowtail of his coat parallel with his calves, and looked out upon his realm in thought. A distant echo of his own voice rattled through his mind.   
  
//Fear me, love me, do as I say...and I shall be your slave//  
  
He remembered the terror in her eyes, the desperation with which she had clung to him, but when he had told her to return home, he had had to use force.  
  
"Because, Hoggle, there is no joy in a love bound by rules." Jareth ceased to scour the maze for a mere second. "Any fool would know that."  
  
* * * *  
  
Sarah had been running along the literally never-ending pathway for some time now, intending to find the same opening as before. She had found many others just by trailing her hand across the bricks and moving until her fingers dipped into a gap. However, she was curious about one thing in particular and it was not long until she heard a familiar voice.  
  
"'Allo again!" called the worm with the blue tufts of hair and the red woolly scarf fastened about its neck.  
  
"Hello," Sarah said. "I was hoping I'd find you here."  
  
"Wantin' that cuppa tea yet?" it replied brightly. "The missus doesn't 'alf brew a good'un!"  
  
"That's very kind of you but I really-," Sarah began as another worm poked its head out of a hole in the wall. This one had a pair of miniscule spectacles on its nose and a head of girlish ringlets.  
  
"Oh 'allo!" she said. "I was wonderin' when you'd be back."  
  
Before Sarah could make any excuse, the pair of invertebrates had gone and returned with a teacup the size of a bottle cap. Not wishing to be impolite, she picked up the vessel between finger and thumb then gasped as it expanded to full size in her hand.  
  
The blue-haired worm giggled. "Don't forget what I told you last time! Things aren't always what they seem here." Seeing the human smile, he was urged to continue. "Now what was it you were after?"  
  
Sarah sipped at the tea prior to making an effort to reply. The taste was refreshing and had the hint of lemon and rose. It was neither too hot nor too weak.  
  
"Yes, I was wondering about that time you told me where to find the openings in the walls. You told me I shouldn't go left, and I never asked why."  
  
The worm looked aghast.  
  
"You don't want to be going down there!" it squeaked.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"It leads to that horrid castle!"  
  
Sarah chided herself at how she had missed this the first time. However, she considered she might never have gathered so many loyal friends let alone managed to get into the goblin city. Still, this time she fancied a quicker option. Finishing her tea and thanking the couple profusely, Sarah set her empty cup on the ledge and turned to the wall where the opening was.  
  
Walking straight towards it, she banged her nose on the hard brick.  
  
"Ow."  
  
Sarah rubbed her face and half expected to hear laughter booming throughout the land. She was certainly glad he hadn't seen *that*. Nice one Sarah, she thought, blushing to the open air.  
  
"Of course," she reflected aloud. "This place always changes. I'll just have to have faith that there's another opening further along." Acting out her plan, she ran her hands across the coarse stone until she found an alternative exit.  
  
Then she took the left passage. 


	3. Predatory lies

(Thank you all for your reviews. There have been some questions so I will try my best to answer them. First of all, for draegon-fire...the left passage doesn't lead to the castle, hee hee, but thank you for being insightful. Jareth made the promise at a time when he was desperate and he failed to realise that for Sarah to be in love with him, her ideal would be not to be completely under his control. There is something mutual occurring that cancelled out the weakest part of the promise. As for whether this story will end up being a romance... I hope it will be a little more complex than that ... just have to wait and see!  
  
As for the Hoggle problem, in case it was not clear enough in the prequel, he has turned into a prince because in the film I quote... "if she ever kisses you, I will turn you into a prince". He has not become a prince of the bog of eternal stench because that part was not a lie. Furthermore, *grins as she ices the cake* Hoggle was young to start with because it took a while for his true age to catch up with him. Hope you enjoy the next chapter xx)  
  
Chapter III  
  
After taking a sequence of right and wrong turns, through dusty passageways, up and down stairs, above and below ground, Sarah came to a cube-shaped room with what looked like a tent pitched just off-centre of the floor. As she got closer, she realised that it was not a tent but part of a bizarre creature with elongated, rope-like arms that spanned out over the tiles.  
  
"Hey, um, are you okay?" she asked the thing that was sprawled flat. "You're not hurt are you?"  
  
"Me?" the thing answered, its head swivelling out from under its bulbous body to look at her. Two eyes bulged at the sides of a long, trumpet nose. "No, no, I'm fine. Just climbing this wall."  
  
Sarah could now see that each spindly limb held a kind of hook that buried into the gaps between the stone slabs on the floor. There were also various rungs embedded into the ground in several places.  
  
"Not meaning to be rude, but isn't that the floor?" she said.  
  
The creature tutted irritably and gestured towards the wall to her right.  
  
"*That's* the floor."  
  
No sooner had he spoken the words, Sarah shrieked as she slid towards what she had believed to be wall. She managed to grab onto a rung protruding above her head, then she looked across at the unaffected creature whilst he ascended to her level.  
  
"T-the room! It's upside-down!" she stammered, gasping with the strain of holding her own weight.  
  
"Not quite. I'd say ninety degrees from last time you looked," the tent-like being said without any sign of having made a joke.  
  
Sarah located a rung to rest her feet on and relieved a great deal of aching. She peered upwards to see a trapdoor in the ceiling, a little out of her reach if she were to climb to the top of the wall.  
  
"How often do these things change?" she asked the climber.  
  
"Usually when you don't want them to."  
  
"That's not-."  
  
"Sshh!"  
  
Sarah quieted at the creature's command for something else had entered the room. She held her breath as a great black-furred beast trod below, each step thundering ominously. If it had not been for the six legs sloping into deadly taloned paws, she could have sworn it was a giant dog. Fearsome yellow eyes darted above slavering jaws that were reddened with fresh blood. She had never seen anything so frightening, even when compared with the Polydragon, because at that time she believed she was needed alive. The beast was bigger than Ludo, the orange monster she had seen in Jareth's dungeons, her friend.  
  
"What is that?" she gasped, wishing immediately that she had kept quiet.  
  
The glowering orbs whirled to fixate upon her and the maddened creature charged. Before she could wonder whether it could jump high enough to reach her, the room rotated again. Now she and the climber were on the ceiling and the immense monster scrabbled at the left-hand wall, latching onto various rungs with its array of toes.  
  
Sarah took her chance for escape; observing the trapdoor was now on the right-hand wall, just close enough to jump to. Swinging herself along the metal rungs, not daring to look down, she gritted her teeth and threw her body weight at the door. As luck would have it, the trapdoor swung inward and she bowled out into the old sand-coloured maze. She clearly recalled this as the place where she had made markings on the floor during her quest for Toby.  
  
She peered back through the door to see the climbing creature had disappeared but the wolfish monster remained clinging to the far wall, snarling and snapping at thin air. Figuring it would not be long before the room shifted, Sarah thought it wise to get moving. She closed the trapdoor and returned to the maze.  
  
Or so she had thought.  
  
Sarah had come to a dead end. That could only mean one thing.  
  
"Well, she didn't meet certain death, that's for sure!" bellowed a northern British accent from behind her.  
  
Several voices burst out into peals of laughter. Sarah turned to see the red and blue guardians, guffawing behind their moustaches and shields. Without explanation, she smiled fondly at the characters.  
  
"How are ye, m'gel?" asked the red upside-down guard.  
  
"Could be better," Sarah answered, "but I've had a lot of time to think you guys through and I've discovered a problem."  
  
"Is tha' right?" the blue upside-down guard chortled, causing the others to pop up their heads, laugh, and duck behind their shields again.  
  
Sarah licked her lips as though preparing herself for a difficult sum.  
  
"One of you told me the rule that I can only ask *one* of you a question, but the other told me that one of you *always* lies and one of you *always* tells the truth," she said, watching their puzzled expressions closely. "Which means one of those rules isn't true."  
  
"Really?" piped up the top red guard.  
  
"Yeah, that's what I think. So either I can ask as many questions as I like, or both of you are able to tell the truth or lie whenever you please." At this she faltered. "I just don't know which one it is."  
  
"Then why don't you try asking?" suggested the top blue guard. "You've got nothing to lose."  
  
Sarah suddenly thought that the blue guard must be the one telling the truth, but then wondered if she really *did* have something to lose if she chose wrongly. Even if she did know the right door, it was possible that 'certain death' constituted rotting in that oubliette.  
  
"If it turns out I can only ask one question, I'd risk wasting it. If you can lie or tell the truth, there won't be a point in me asking things unless you had control over what you answered." She hoped that made sense to them. They shrugged.  
  
She sighed.  
  
"I guess I'll have to give up trying to be clever," she said finally. Then she approached the red guard. "Would he tell me that the creature following me is wanting to kill me?" She glanced at the other guard as she spoke.  
  
The red guard twitched his nose and ducked behind his shield for a conference. His helmeted head resurfaced.  
  
"No," he replied, unsure of what his answer meant.  
  
Sarah's face whitened slightly. "Then there's only one thing for it. Is my hair dark?" she asked the blue guard.  
  
"Yes."  
  
Sarah blanched. Now she knew three things; that the red and blue guards only told truth or lies as originally thought and therefore could answer as many questions as she asked; the blue guard was truthful; and the dog-monster was out for her blood.  
  
"Did, did I choose the right door last time? I mean right as in not leading to certain death?"  
  
"Yes," said the blue guard, stepping aside to let her pass.  
  
Sarah took a breath and opened the door but did not walk onto the path beyond. Instead, she took a running jump, aiming to clear the hidden pit that led into the oubliette. Her shoes touched stable ground. A tingle of relief spread through her and she resumed her journey through the winding passages of the Labyrinth.  
  
* * * *  
  
The cell door slammed shut in the darkness. A torch ignited in its wall bracket, revealing the two figures that faced each other. The largest of the pair was burdened with a tangle of chains, hardly able to move his great horned head in any direction. When the dim flame showed the Goblin King to be mere inches away, Ludo emitted a mighty roar and shook his bonds with a fury. Links strained out from the wall and floor but held fast.  
  
Jareth placed a finger at his lips to hush the beast.  
  
"I'm going to set you free," he said calmly. "But first I want to show you something."  
  
A crystal globe shimmered into view, hovering just in front of Ludo's nose. Within the glass, there appeared a moving image of a girl darting along narrow pathways. The ginger-pelted creature became animated suddenly.  
  
"Sehwah!" he moaned, fighting his restraints.  
  
"Not Sarah," Jareth told Ludo solemnly, receiving a look of confusion. "Sarah left you. She left us. She has forgotten you."  
  
"No!" Ludo wailed. "Sehwah friend!"  
  
Jareth reached out to remove the suspended orb but changed his mind, noticing the soothing effect it had on the monster.  
  
"She lied, dear Ludo. Young women like her... you can't trust them. This is not Sarah," he said, gesturing to the girl in the crystal. "It's a trick to ensnare the weak."  
  
"Not Sehwah?" the beast asked sorrowfully.  
  
"No."  
  
"Sehwah *lied*?"  
  
"She did."  
  
An enormous tear ran down Ludo's squashed muzzle to splash wetly on the dungeon floor. He sniffed and tried to raise a paw to wipe his nose but it was just too much effort. The man who watched him offered no comfort, scowling inwardly at the sickening sight of a tame animal.  
  
"Oh come, come, there's no sense in crying," Jareth said with a grimace. He stepped forward to look the distraught beast in the eyes, blocking his view of the crystal. "How would you like it if we made it so Sarah could never leave? She could not lie and she'd never abandon you again."  
  
Ludo returned the Goblin King's gaze with a pitiful stare of his own.  
  
"Sehwah stay?"  
  
Jareth nodded, playing enthusiasm. "Yes. Yes Ludo. Sarah would stay, *forever*."  
  
"Ludo need Sehwah!" yelped the prisoner, causing the chains to tinkle loudly.  
  
Jareth placed his gloved hands either side of Ludo's head to keep him steady, his unwavering tone instantly pacifying him.  
  
"All I will do is tell a few little stories to keep her here," he spoke with a voice reminiscent of icing sugar. "But I want you to do something for me."  
  
"Ludo? Ludo help keep Sehwah?"  
  
Jareth nodded slyly and began to whisper in Ludo's ear. 


	4. Betrayal

(Author's note: Sorry this chapter is going to be so short but I did a bit of bad planning. I would rather not run into the next section in the same chapter 'cause the suspense isn't as great ;p. Hope you enjoy it anyways. Again, thank you for your wonderful reviews)  
  
Chapter IV  
  
Even though she had never seen the Sun in this world, let alone bothered to think about the differences in time zones, Sarah believed it to be around midday. The weather was humid and the harsh texture in her mouth reminded her how thirsty she was. She had got to the point of the Labyrinth where the usual dusty walls had traded with many hedges of varied shapes and sizes. Sometimes there were hindrances such as the sound of a guard patrol cantering clumsily on the back of a lizard-like creature, other times she discovered arrow-shaped topiaries that appeared to guide the way to the castle. She was not entirely sure how helpful these were, however, especially when some of them swivelled about spontaneously.  
  
Eventually she reached a place where the path opened out into an oval shape, a vast pond stretching before her. To her dismay, the water looked quite fetid and ridden with algae. Furthermore, the way out was either the way back or across the pool. She did not fancy swimming in it. She was even surprised to see her reflection in it at all.  
  
There was a curious set of large lily pads in a makeshift route over the pond, though she was doubtful they would hold her weight. Figuring this *was* a place for impossible things to happen, Sarah stepped up to the edge and gingerly set one foot onto the first plant. It was solid. Her other foot followed suit and she stood safely on the surface of the pool. She allowed herself to bend her knees and jump a little way into the air. The lily pad remained dormant. Using this newfound method of travel, she hopped from one giant leaf to the other, reaching the other side in no time at all.  
  
When her feet touched the stone ground once again, Sarah smiled and congratulated herself, wringing her clasped hands above her head in celebration. She paused; her arms still raised, and stared bleakly at the huddled form in the shadows.  
  
"Ludo?" she frowned. "Is that you?"  
  
The great furry bulk of her friend stepped into the daylight. Sarah rushed excitedly to him and threw her arms about him.  
  
"Oh Ludo! I missed you so much!" she exclaimed. "I didn't know if I'd ever see you again. I-." She hesitated at the sadness with which he regarded her. "Ludo, are you all right? Did he hurt you?" Her face whitened with worry.  
  
"Sehwah friend," he answered, clasping his immense paws about her.  
  
"Yes Ludo, I'm your friend. I'll always be your friend."  
  
He gripped her tighter, causing her to cough. "Sehwah stay."  
  
"I'm here Ludo," she said, feeling his grasp grow a bit too strong. "What's wrong? Won't you tell me what's wrong?"  
  
Ludo held her against his chest with a force that threatened to crush her then he took hold of her arms and lifted her clean off the ground. Sarah gulped in the air she had been deprived of and looked at her companion with an expression of bewilderment.  
  
"Ludo, tell me what's wrong," she demanded as he trudged forwards. "What's the matter with you?" She was now dangling over the surface of the pond; only Ludo's hold preventing her fall. "Ludo, NO!"  
  
Sarah felt the chill of the cold waters rush through her body as she plunged below the surface. Murky clouds expelled the view of blue skies and foul bubbles mockingly quenched her parched throat. Her face broke through the layer of algae to gasp in a breath but a series of sharp needlepoints embedded into her shins. She cried out in agony. Something was dragging her down. She felt slimy tendrils fasten onto her limbs.  
  
Ludo stood at the side of the pool, blinking away the moisture from his eyes, completely helpless to his friend's pleas. He raised his head to observe the figure at the opposite side that seemed to be watching the scene with an abhorrent fascination.  
  
Jareth leant forward, applying his balance upon the boot he had elevated to the edge of the pond. He tilted his chin higher in a manner of superiority then presented a satisfied smirk as Sarah vanished beneath the surface. 


	5. The Goblin Princess

(Author's note: All right, all right! It's here!)  
  
Chapter V  
  
A whispery voice rippled across the emerald fields where wild horses skittered and raced, their long glossy manes billowing at their broad necks. The constant tinkling of a water fountain sounded in an empty, white courtyard and somewhere a lethargic tiger shifted his handsome head to yawn before sinking into slumber beneath a willow.  
  
High above the tranquillity of the castle gardens, a princess lay sound asleep in a tower, the setting sun casting its pale light upon her peaceful face. A soft breeze toyed with her brunette hair, too mild to detach it from under the curve of her diamond headdress. She was blissfully unaware that she had slipped to the furthest reaches of the ledge, and now she rolled once more.  
  
Lady Eldemay was jolted awake as someone grabbed hold of her, saving her from a grisly plummet to the stone walkway below.  
  
"My lady!" an anxious voice cried. "Dost thou not know better than to sleep beside yonder window?"  
  
The princess turned to her friend with a smile and got down from the sill, crossing to the four-poster bed against the opposite wall. The fox creature cradled in her arms looked up at her tenderly with his one eye.  
  
"Thank you, my dear Sir Didymus," she said. "I don't know where I'd be without you."  
  
"My lady is most kind," Didymus replied, nodding his head in gratitude. "Wouldst thou consider retiring your royal chambers? Only there appears to be a small matter of discussion needed in the main hall."  
  
Eldemay acknowledged and smoothed out the creases in her lilac, satin gown. She followed the strange knight along elaborately decorated hallways and descended wide, sweeping staircases until she reached a towering set of ebony doors. They swung open at the slightest touch and she graced the glittering marble floor of a grand, oval throne room. White lace drapes fanned out like orange segments around star-shaped chandeliers, small children darted here and there as she made her way to the royal seat. The throne itself was covered luxuriously in velvet, two wooden unicorn horns sticking out from the top of the mahogany frame, pointing gloriously to the crown insignia that hung overhead.  
  
Once she had taken her seat, Lady Eldemay gestured to Sir Didymus to perch on the golden arm and then proceeded to address the dwarf who stood in wait.  
  
"Hello Hoggle. What is it you wanted to see me about?"  
  
Hoggle stepped forward and gave a humble bow.  
  
"Yer 'Ighness, I have received a message from 'is majesty askin' that all subjects be goin' to them outskirts of the city an' that you alone be allowed to stay 'ere." He made a befuddled frown as though going over what he had said to check his facts then looked at her expectantly.  
  
"That's ridiculous!" the princess exclaimed. "Whatever for? Are you saying he is booting everyone out of my service?"  
  
"It seems so," Hoggle answered sadly.  
  
"Well I forbid it. Who does this 'majesty' think he is ordering me around when I never so much as see him? Nor do I even know so much as his name! Go and tell him that my people stay here!"  
  
"With respect, Highness, he also tells me that you wouldn't like what 'e was askin' so he said to tell you if you didn't throw us out, 'e'd throw you out too," Hoggle said, shuffling his feet awkwardly.  
  
Lady Eldemay glanced about the hushed room, the faces of a hundred children staring back at her, some with their fingers poised at their lips, others holding onto each other for comfort.  
  
"Then I will go with you," she said finally.  
  
"But what about Toby?" asked the dwarf.  
  
Eldemay frowned, her eyes searching Hoggle's face for a clue to his thought trail.  
  
"Toby?"  
  
"He was the reason the king took pity on you. When you failed to get to him in time, you were given the kingdom. Don't you remember? Toby was your brother. You looked so upset when he changed that his majesty let you stay."  
  
The memory of an angelic child screaming as its fat hands turned to knobbly claws and rosy cheeks became thick green skin flashed in the corner of her mind.  
  
"That *thing* is my brother?" the princess repeated hopelessly.  
  
Hoggle assured her that the goblin kept behind the locked doors of another chamber was indeed Toby.  
  
"How long do I have to think it over?" Eldemay inquired, swallowing her grief.  
  
"He's outside right now."  
  
The princess pushed the castle gates ajar and strode across the courtyard with the fountain. From here, a set of carved stone steps led to a gazebo that peered out onto open fields and pebbled paths. Treading carefully and lifting her dress so that she would not stumble, Eldemay approached the rail of the gazebo and leant out as far as she could.  
  
Without warning, a hand plucked the diamond tiara from her head, causing her to cry out in alarm. There was the sound of a whiplash and a black horse bolted across the pasture, its rider brandishing her precious jewels in one glove. She watched feebly, seeing the dark stallion veer off and gallop in a perfect semicircle before coming to a halt where the grass met path, a metre from the gazebo.  
  
Eldemay whirled to hurry down the steps and confront the thief whose face was hidden discourteously within a shadowed hood.  
  
"Give me that!" she demanded, displaying her palm in an insistent manner.  
  
"No." There was an air of amusement to the voice, which was most certainly male. His right arm raised the tiara aloft.   
  
The princess scowled and darted around the other side of the horse to snatch at her possession. The man's arm straightened out of her reach. A chuckle echoed from inside his cloak.  
  
Lady Eldemay ground her heel into the grass. "Oh-!"  
  
"Let me guess," the rider's voice cut in. "It's not fair?"  
  
The princess fell silent, her lips parted as the man dismounted and walked up to her. His hood slipped back to reveal a forest of feathery blond hair that shaped mystically about an owlish but youthful face.  
  
"I know you," she said.  
  
He grinned at her, startling her with the sharpness of his teeth.  
  
"That's hardly surprising, Sarah," he said, placing the tiara upon her head so gently that she shivered.  
  
"Sarah?" the princess replied in confusion. "But that's not-."  
  
"Isn't it?" Jareth interrupted. "Are you so quick to decide? Dear me, you're beginning to sound more ignorant than ever."  
  
Lady Eldemay scowled and spun from him, starting back to the castle. She flinched at the sound of his riding crop cracking against his knee-length boots. She turned her head to glare at him - but he had gone. Shaking her head, she began to walk again, colliding with the thick wire of the whip held firmly between his hands. She gasped and retreated a fraction, monitored by cold eyes.   
  
Jareth noticed her horrified fixation on the length of cord in his grasp. He smirked and rapped it in his palm, enjoying how she jumped inside her skin.  
  
"I like horses," he said candidly. "What did you think I'd use it for?  
  
The princess ignored the remark and put on a haughty display.  
  
"If it's any concern of yours, I'm supposed to be meeting the king. So if you've quite finished your cavorting, I think you'd better leave."  
  
Jareth tilted his head, an imperious smile upon his lips.  
  
"What ever's the matter, Sarah? I thought you liked to dance."  
  
"Why do you keep calling me that?" Lady Eldemay said curtly, appalled that she was allowing the conversation to continue.  
  
"Because, love, Eldemay is a very silly name for a silly little girl."  
  
The princess flushed. "I demand that you leave!"  
  
He chuckled.  
  
"You really have no idea who you're talking to, do you?" He grinned roguishly.  
  
"Of course I do." Eldemay retorted. "An extremely arrogant man who wastes my time and steals my crown."  
  
"I'm impressed," Jareth said. "You flail ridiculously for words inside that pretty little head and still manage to form comprehensible sentences. However, I believe you need to be a bit more accurate in your perception." He unfastened his cloak from the one button at his chest and let the wind take it.  
  
Lady Eldemay stifled a cry of surprise with a decorated hand. She paled at the sight of the royal pendant that hung about his neck, sparkling as it caught the last light of the sun. Dropping to one knee, she avoided eye contact, only to find the tip of a riding crop lifting her chin.  
  
"On your feet, Sarah. I would not have you grovel at the feet of a stranger," the king said, laughing to himself whilst disguising any suggestion of crudity.  
  
The princess got up at his command, casting a glance to the darkening sky. She tensed under his shrewd gaze, unsure whether she wanted to be in his company or fleeing to the castle.  
  
"I wanted to talk to you about letting my friends stay," she said, eyeing the whip at his side with apprehension.  
  
"I suggest we go inside before you catch a chill," said Jareth, moving close enough for his breath to tickle like cobwebs on her cheek.  
  
"Only if you leave that out here," she uttered, looking once more at the object in his palm.  
  
He revealed his pointed canines, grinning malignly.  
  
"Does it bother you?" he asked, watching her cringe as he swished it to and fro before her face.  
  
"No," she lied, "but it would scare the children."  
  
Jareth shrugged and tossed the whip into the grass, not permitting the princess to see any magic in case her memory was triggered. Remaining beside her even when her pace quickened experimentally, he walked through the castle gates and entered the great hall. 


	6. Cruelty and truth

(Author's note: Okay I'm not too sure if I'm happy with where this whole story is going to go, but hope you bear with it hee hee. Thanks again for the reviews, and as for your questions...well...*sniggers* I'm not answering them here! :p)  
  
Chapter VI  
  
Children scattered at the king's return, screaming and concealing themselves behind the lace curtains when he crossed the middle of the hall. Eldemay tried to coax them from their hiding places, wondering what worried them so. Indeed she felt a sense of overwhelming dread in the presence of this king, particularly now Didymus was nowhere to be seen, but she could not fathom the cause of their distress. Had he done some terrible thing of which only she was unaware?  
  
Jareth turned at the back of the room and let himself sink into the comforts of the throne. A little too comfy, he mused. He resisted the urge to slouch or prop up his boots as he regarded the princess who stood awkwardly in the centre of the marble floor.  
  
"Would you like to sit down?" He rested his chin upon the knuckles of his right hand.  
  
Eldemay looked at the man seated in the only chair.  
  
"I'm fine, thank you."  
  
The king gestured for her to come forward. She did so, somewhat reluctantly.  
  
"Would you like to sit down?" he repeated.  
  
Now only a foot away from the throne, Lady Eldemay trembled, unable to comprehend what he was meaning. The man made no effort to relinquish the chair and she had to keep convincing herself that no other places were in sight.  
  
"No, I-," she started, but was cut short as he lashed out and grabbed hold of her, tipping her onto his lap, one hand preventing her skull from smacking onto the throne arm and the other hooking under her legs to trap her against him.  
  
"What *is* it with today's girls? They never let a man show any courtesy." (1)  
  
The princess quivered in his frightfully gentle grasp, her chest rising and falling rapidly within her restricting gown, heart fluttering like a caged butterfly. The scent of cinnamon sparked a distant recognition but only served to make her uneasier.  
  
"Who *are* you?" she whispered, yet again cursing herself for not using the more appropriate 'let go' or 'put me down'.  
  
"I thought you knew," Jareth taunted.  
  
Eldemay struggled uselessly for a moment before answering, "I did. I just can't remember your-." She broke off as the warmth of his embrace combined with his piquant fragrance caused her to yawn.  
  
"I think Sarah's had a little too much excitement for one day."  
  
The king rose from his seat, the girl in his arms mumbling a complaint. He presented a furtive smile then passed a hand in a circular movement before her face, immersing her in sleep. After having left the room, he ascended the palatial staircases to her chamber to put her to bed. When she touched onto the smooth sheets, her eyelids flickered lazily.  
  
"Will you tell me your name?" she said in one even breath, not even noticing that her lilac dress had transformed into a sapphire blue night-slip and her tiara had vaporised.  
  
"You'll remember when the time is ripe." He pulled the quilted covers over her with incredible diligence but such strength it was as though he were sealing a tomb. He lingered momentarily, leaning over her, his indistinguishably curved nose in line with hers, their lips almost meeting. Then he withdrew and made for the door.  
  
"Wait."  
  
He stopped, one boot upon the hall carpet, then turned to see her sitting up, her face lit with a faint glimmer of hope and the desire to understand. The agonising chaos bubbling in her heart and soul pleaded for a response that would unlock what she had repressed.  
  
"Do you love me?" she asked quietly.  
  
The man in the doorway appeared to make a choking sound and put a gloved palm to his lips in the way that one would when preparing to cry or vomit. The hand bunched up and he bit the joint of his index finger. Jareth, unable to contain himself, exploded into a fit of sadistic laughter, then spun on his heel and left the princess to weep.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Lady Eldemay awoke to a dark room, suspicious that he was standing close by, expecting. Seeing that she was alone, she had the strangest feeling that she was not supposed to be, as though she were briefly free of invisible puppet strings.  
  
The princess got out of bed and tiptoed to her door. From there, she peered into the dimly illuminated hallway and, after discerning the coast was clear, crept down to the lower level of the castle. She hesitated outside the shining black doors of the great hall to listen for any signs of life. There did not seem to be a sound beyond them, nevertheless she made her escape into the gardens.  
  
She was surprised to note that there were no stars in the sky, yet she was inexplicably comforted by their absence. She felt that even they could spy on her somehow and found herself keeping to the shadows to evade an imaginary searchlight. The neatly pruned hedges retained their beauty in the darkness, the soft hisses of running water and wind-blown leaves continued through the night, and Eldemay wandered barefoot along the flag-stoned walkway she had seen from the tower window.  
  
After some time she stumbled upon an opening in the bordering hedgerow, a trellised ingress leading to an enclosed garden. In the centre was an apple tree, tall and bearing many red fruits. The surrounding area was lit with a number of floating orbs that danced and bobbed between the branches and about the trunk.  
  
The princess had been on the verge of investigating the garden further when a small figure situated in the corner caught her eye. It was a little girl, quite a lot younger than Eldemay, who sat upon a rickety three-legged stool to one side of the lawn. Her hair was a burnished copper colour and she wore an old-fashioned grey frock. Either the girl had not noticed another presence or she was ignoring her, engrossed in whatever it was she held on her lap.   
  
Stepping closer, the princess could see that the object was a cloth doll, unfinished, and the child was sewing on a brown button for an eye.  
  
"You're her, aren't you?" the girl said without looking up.  
  
Lady Eldemay blinked. "Excuse me?"  
  
The child reached into a wooden bowl beside her stool and plucked out another button before continuing. "You're the one I've seen in my ball."  
  
"Ball?" the princess asked, bewildered. She followed the thread's course as a strikingly different eye fastened into the rag doll's face.  
  
"I lost it though. If I had it, I'd be able to show you," said the girl, separating white spaghetti-like strings that sprouted from her creation's head.  
  
"Where did you lose it?"  
  
"Somewhere over there," the child answered, pointing towards the apple tree. "But it looks just like the fruit."  
  
Eldemay nodded as the little girl returned to her work, slightly perturbed by the assortment of pins piercing the doll's belly. She headed for the tree in search of the toy, astonished to discover that the hovering globes were in fact fairies bearing miniature lanterns. Reaching the base of the centrepiece, the princess saw that apples littered the grass at her feet. At least, they looked like apples, except they were split open in the middle and were completely hollow. She circled the tree, scanning every splash of red in the greenery but found no red ball.  
  
"It must have got caught in the tree," she said to herself.  
  
The plant was too thin for her to climb and she was not decently dressed to attempt to. Instead, she stood on the tips of her toes and picked the first red object she laid eyes on.  
  
Almost immediately, the red sphere popped open. There was a terrible squealing noise and a dozen spiders spilled out, crawling over her bare arms and scuttling inside the sleeves of her nightdress. She yelped, dropping the empty shell, and shook them off, spinning around and beating at her clothing.  
  
"Those aren't apples! They're egg-sacs!" she cried.  
  
She calmed down as the last spider darted timidly into the grass, and spotted something carved into the tree-bark. There were words hidden in the shadows. The princess snatched a fairy from the air, taking care to avoid its savage teeth, and forced it to hold its lantern so she could read the inscription.  
  
"An apple never falls far from its tree."  
  
Considering her newly gained advice, Eldemay released the annoyed creature and set about forming a plan. Approaching the tree again, she grasped the slim trunk and gave it a moderate push. One object fell from the branches but did not split open, despite the dark line at its middle. She watched as it rolled across the lawn, bouncing unnaturally, then came to a halt near the entrance. Another collection of arachnids burst onto the path and scattered out of sight.  
  
The princess smiled. She took hold of the bole of the tree and shook it violently, egg sacs raining from the branches, each one rolling to the edges of the garden before emptying itself.   
  
She stopped and surveyed the ground where a few loose apples had landed. Three of them were real apples, scarlet and leaking juice at the merest touch. The fourth one was paler in colour and when her fingers gripped the smooth contours, she gasped at how cool it was. As she lifted it level with her face, the shining surface of red became the clear face of crystal. Inside there was a girl who looked extraordinarily familiar.  
  
She was a dark-haired adolescent, her eyes closed in sleep, sprawled upon a stone floor in a dreary courtyard.  
  
Lady Eldemay narrowed her eyes then turned to inform the child of her success but, like so many other things in this artificial world, she had vanished. The princess glanced once more at the glass ball with its vision and then strode back through the gardens. 


	7. The choice of reality

(Author's note: Ok I forgot to put the footnote I was going to use when I put (1) next to something last chapter. It was only to explain that the speech by Jareth was inspired by my good friend Oli who said something very similar when offering a chair :p Anyway, here's the next chapter. Excuse the shortness/slowness, back to college and all!)  
  
Chapter VII  
  
Hurling the ebony doors aside, she stormed into the great hall in all its splendour. She scanned the room shrewdly, ignoring the infants who had stirred and were whimpering pitifully.  
  
"Looking for me?" came a voice from behind her.  
  
The princess whirled furiously to confront the man who leant casually in the doorframe.  
  
"What did you do to me?" she snarled.  
  
The King raised an owl-wing eyebrow.  
  
"I *thought* I'd put you to bed," he said. "By the way, I do like your dress."  
  
"This place isn't real, is it?" she said, fuming.  
  
"No," he replied simply. "It isn't. But why would anyone want to return to a reality where they can't even remember their own name?"  
  
She scowled.  
  
"My name is Sarah."  
  
Jareth stifled a laugh at what appeared to be a personal joke, and then proceeded to make his point. (1)  
  
"You have forgotten about the friends who betrayed you. What could possibly move you to go back to a world where your most trusted companions give you poisoned food and try to drown you?" He noted her face crease with the effort to remember. "There is no one to hurt you here."  
  
"Oh yeah?" Sarah retaliated. "Then what about *this*?" She brought forward the hand that held the sphere. An expression of disbelief crossed her face.  
  
The Goblin King strutted majestically towards her, slowing his pace to make each one more imposing than the last.  
  
"This," he said, plucking the object from her outstretched palm, "is an apple. Symbolic of temptation despite the fact that nowhere in the scriptures does it say exactly what the forbidden fruit is." He inspected the apple and bit into it with a tentative crunch. "Though not quite seasoned." He tossed it back to her, smiling complacently as she caught it without thinking.  
  
"Why are you keeping me here?" Sarah demanded.  
  
"I'm a dreaming kind of guy." (2)  
  
Overcome with rage, Sarah drew back her arm to hurl the apple to strike the amusement from his elfin face even though she was certain he would catch it easily. The trickle of juice on her fingertips made her stop. She looked again at the damaged fruit. It was darkening rapidly.  
  
Something clicked. A flood of information surged in Sarah's brain as she lost herself within the swirling tones of red. Images, her friends in chains, a six-legged monster; a snow-white bird and a voice echoing in her head.  
  
The goblin King presented the same look that he had given when Sarah had realised that the masquerade ball was not real - not angry, more disappointed - as she lifted her gaze to his own and spoke a solitary word.  
  
"Jareth."  
  
Sarah reeled as the ground shook beneath her feet. The ivory walls peeled and came crashing down to expose the shabby wooden beams of the true throne room, the one chair's velvet reverted to flat cushion and the unicorn horns twisted into monstrously grotesque spirals. The cherub-like faces of the on-looking children morphed into cackling goblins and the chandeliers and curtains dropped from the ceiling, bringing dust and dirt upon her head. She hit the floor on her back and glanced only once at the undisturbed silhouette of Jareth before she allowed her eyes to close.  
  
* * * *  
  
Sarah groaned, the weight of the world on her head until she rolled over on the stone, dripping wet from the pond. She sat up groggily then winced at a sharp pain in her leg. There were purple barbs protruding out of her shins. Biting her lip, she ripped each one out, six in all, grimacing at the viscous poison that coated their tips. When she looked about this strange courtyard she saw no sign of the rotten pool or Ludo.  
  
Her head ached. How long had she been in that place, that world of lies? The puddles of water forming underneath her suggested she had been pulled out recently, but she recalled the passing of days and it was daylight once more. There was no way she could have survived so long underwater. Time never made sense here.  
  
"Home sweet home," she muttered, but wished she had not.  
  
Sarah stood up and explored this new place, a courtyard encompassing a row of freshwater fountains - identical in size and shape. The spouts were shaped like tulips standing in a granite cusp, liquid pouring out of carved seahorse snouts into the wide wells at the bases. The cool, glittering substance reiterated her thirst and she approached one to drink, not caring about the consequences.  
  
Cupping her palms in the fountain, she tipped her head back and let the tasteless water wash down her grateful throat. Encouraged to continue by her tired body, she was oblivious to the pair of amber eyes watching her in the blackness of the surrounding undergrowth.  
  
The dog-monster, enraged and ravenous, tore out of the shadows and raced towards its prey. Its claws clicked upon the stone, its black muscular body rippling in motion. Sarah spun around in terror the moment the beast pounced but it was instantly intercepted in mid-air by another shape. Two creatures slammed to the floor, rolling, locked in a vicious battle. Orange blurred, smothered beneath the black, fur tore and scattered under the onslaught of teeth and claws. At last they separated, the smaller of the huge animals landing with a dull thud several feet away. It did not move.  
  
"Ludo!" Sarah cried in alarm.  
  
The victorious monster turned on her, steady streams of saliva mixed with blood running between the gaps in its mouth. Sweat dripped from the snout that pointed directly at Sarah. There was a rough bark like the sound of a rusty saw then it lunged for her. She gasped in pain when her head met the ground, now the vision of the beast swimming above her, ready to rip out her throat.  
  
Just as the six-legged hound was about to strike, it was distracted by a splash from the nearby fountain. It raised its ugly head and was suddenly bombarded with a shower of water. The beast yelped and staggered back across the courtyard. Its fiery eyes dimmed and it keeled over, writhing hideously. Sarah sat up shakily, watching the awful scene. The monster lay shuddering, its fur seemed to grow but its body was diminishing in size. White and grey pigmentations coated the black fibres; the two middle legs contracted and vanished beneath a shaggy coat. What now lay, shivering upon the stone, was nothing more than an Old English sheepdog, none other than the steed of Sir Didymus - Ambrosius.  
  
Ambrosius whimpered, peering through his overgrown fringe at the gaping girl. Then he pulled himself to his feet and scampered off through the maze.  
  
(Footnotes: (1) This is a key quote in the play Translations by Brian Friel (2) From 'When I live my dream' - David Bowie) 


	8. You remind me of the babe

(Author's note: Thanks again for the reviews. Hopefully questions shall be answered as the story progresses. I admit I need to improve on my division between emotions and events as we either get too much of one or the other, but I can only continue and hope you stick with it!)  
  
Chapter VIII  
  
Sarah turned to her fallen friend's side and leant over to stroke his matted mane.  
  
"Oh Ludo, are you okay?" she asked, biting her lip out of worry.  
  
Ludo opened his eyes slowly and groaned.  
  
"Seh...wah."  
  
There was a large gash travelling from his left shoulder to his right rib. His fur was stained red around his wound like a scarlet ribbon.  
  
"Ludo...sorry..." he managed, droplets of moisture escaping his eyes.  
  
Sarah cradled his great head in her arms and soothed him.  
  
"It's not your fault, Ludo. I forgive you. Just stay with me, okay?" She held him tightly as she glanced around the courtyard. "Something threw water on Ambrosius and must have broken some sort of spell. Did you see anyone?"  
  
Her friend grunted and moved his head from side to side: 'No'.  
  
"Hello?" Sarah called to the sound of trickling water. "Is anyone there?"  
  
A noise similar to the movement of water with wading feet made a response. Sarah squinted at each fountain, seeing no sign of whatever it was, but spied a curious trail of wet spots upon the side of the one she had drunk from. Concentrating harder, she swore that something was reflecting the sunlight just in front of it, even though she could see right through to the hedges beyond. The outline of what appeared to be water hovering in the air formed that of a young girl. Sunlight picked out the shadows of a nose and lips, thin indentations in her hair and pupil-less eyes.  
  
"I-," Sarah started. "Thank you for helping us."  
  
The girl composed entirely of water approached, leaving behind a track of shining footprints.  
  
"Your friend is hurt," she said dismissively, her voice like a whisper.  
  
Sarah nodded then she frowned in recognition.  
  
"You're the girl in my dream," she said. "The one who showed me who I really was. You were-." Sarah hesitated, unsure if the girl showed any interest in what she had to say. It was hard to tell with an expressionless face. "You were different though."  
  
"I was human?" the girl replied with a lack of surprise.  
  
"Yes, and you were making a doll..." Sarah trailed. "What happened?"  
  
The water being sat the other side of the injured beast that lay on the floor.  
  
"That wasn't me you saw. It may have been a part of me but I've been this way a long time."  
  
"What do you mean a 'part' of you?" Sarah implored, drifting a gentle hand across Ludo's cheek.  
  
"When he puts people in dreams, he temporarily takes the essence of things inside the Labyrinth, whether they be past or present," the girl explained. "He wouldn't have meant for me to be there, I've no doubt, but he tends to forget that I have a connection with the water sources here."  
  
The memory of a lone fountain in the castle grounds submerged itself again in Sarah's mind.  
  
"But you were human once," she said, feeling her insides lurch. "What did he do to you?"  
  
The reply was made in an absent kind of voice. "He often sings a song about me."  
  
"A song?" Sarah could only recall one chilling song echoing about a room with many staircases, but that had not been about this girl.  
  
"When I was a baby, my mother wished me away because I wouldn't stop crying. She was glad I was gone. Even the King couldn't make me stop, so he locked me up until I'd grown older, brought up by his goblins. When he finally let me out, he caught me making a voodoo doll of him out of goblin uniforms."  
  
Sarah looked wide-eyed at her. "And then what?"  
  
"_Nobody knew what kind of magic spell to use_," the girl sang hauntingly. "He couldn't turn me into a goblin but he made sure I could never pick up a needle and thread again. He thought it would be fitting that I be made of all the tears that I cried."  
  
Sarah's face was a mask of condolence and self-disgust toward the feelings forced upon her own heart. She loathed the very man her heart ached for. Blinking away the thought, her eyes lit up in horror.  
  
"Oh no, I drank from the-."  
  
"It's all right," the girl said, cutting her short. "You didn't drink any of me. I'm careful. I only come here because it's quiet. Things don't hurt me but I get annoyed when the Wild Gang realise they can separate my head from my body. Gets a bit tiresome after a few decades."  
  
Sarah raised her eyebrow at the last word. Decades? How long had Jareth been playing this despicable game? This poor girl had been kept in this world, away from home, away from a home she had never known.  
  
"If you're wondering why I'm not any older since he changed me, it's because water doesn't age. Change it however you like, it's stuck in the same time frame."  
  
"What is your name?" Sarah asked, noting the advanced way in which this child spoke.  
  
"Lynden. And you are Sarah," came the reply.  
  
Sarah asked how she knew but Lynden only shrugged.  
  
"Is there anywhere we can rest? Ludo's not looking too good."  
  
Lynden nodded, which was only visible by the contrast in shadows and light.  
  
"There's a system of caverns underground. Sometimes there's a goblin patrol but I blend in with the stream. I can keep a look-out for you while you sleep."  
  
Sarah thanked her and helped Ludo to his feet. Once she was sure he was balanced, she took the beast's hand and let Lynden lead the way. Past the very last fountain, there was a difference in the floor. The plain stone had divided into a few rows of tiles before becoming plain again. When Lynden stepped onto one, her transparent feet sank through it.  
  
"Don't worry," she said, turning to see the look of apprehension on her companions' faces. "The floor is mostly an illusion. There's a stairway down here. As long as you walk on this tile, you're fine."  
  
Sarah stepped cautiously onto the tile after Lynden's head disappeared, then turned to aid Ludo in his descent. Walking further forwards, she found her foot dropped a fraction. Now her memory had recorded the distance it needed for each step, she made her way below ground (below ground in the Underground, she thought with a tampered humour) with Ludo in tow. 


	9. Dancing in the dark

(Author's note: Here it is finally, and it's going to be longer than all the others. I have literally just finished it so it will be a while before the next one. Apologies of the most profound...erm...ness!)  
  
Chapter IX  
  
The caverns were, as to be expected: dark, murky, gloomy, shadowy, tenebrous - all other words to encompass its blackness. There were a few torches flaming in their wall brackets, recently replaced, to light up the pathway that ran alongside a wide, winding stream. Rock stalactites jutted from the ceiling, dripping moisture and causing any traveller to gain a sense of unease as they passed underneath.  
  
Lynden halted when they came across an alcove in the rock wall, facing the watercourse.  
  
"This should be big enough for you and your friend to hide in for a while," she said.  
  
Sarah guided Ludo into the little cul-de-sac and sat down with him.  
  
"Ludo hurt," the poor beast moaned. "Hurt bad."  
  
Sarah hugged him, taking care not to disturb his wounds. She looked out at Lynden who was barely visible near the water's edge.  
  
"Do you know if there are any medicines or anything in this place?" she called.  
  
Lynden turned her head, her blank eyes narrowing in thought.  
  
"Nothing that will heal him outright, but tarkenast might ease the pain. There should be some growing a few sections along. I can't pick it though, it'd be best I stay here and watch over, er-." She hesitated, flailing for the name. "Ludo." She gave an apologetic glance that suggested she had been distracted.  
  
Sarah got to her feet, patting Ludo on the head for reassurance.  
  
"Right. What's this tarka-whatsit look like?"  
  
"It's got dark blue leaves which makes it harder to see but the flowers are golden. You'll be likely to find them nearer the wall than the stream though."  
  
Sarah acknowledged and set off down the soil path in search of the plant. Most of the areas were adequately lit, preventing her from tripping over bits of rock or catching her foot in a pothole. She came finally to a cavern that was totally plunged in darkness - either there was no torch or it had gone out - so she had to double back and borrow one from the previous grotto.  
  
The dim flame informed her she had reached a patch of vegetation though she could not yet see any tarkenast plants. A variety of mosses and grasses cushioned her shoes but very few blossoms could be seen, most surely associated with the lack of light. Treading carefully where the gaps in the path were, Sarah caught a glimpse of something floating close to the bank. She crouched at the edge and fished out the object.   
  
It was a burnt-out torch, still oiled and warm to the touch. Someone had thrown it into the water on purpose. Someone wanted it dark.  
  
Sarah's mind screamed ambush. She discarded the dead torch and swung the lit one around. It stopped to illuminate a grinning face, sharp teeth glittering with malice.  
  
"My, my, Sarah. Don't we look a state?"  
  
Sarah scowled at the Goblin King who lounged on a nearby rock, clad in his preferred black attire that fluttered like a restless raven. She strode past him to place her torch in the empty bracket, ensuring that she did not let her nerves disrupt her equilibrium.  
  
"I see you've made acquaintance with my liquid girl," he simpered, delighting in the way she pretended to ignore him. "What makes you think you can trust her?"  
  
"Because she'd sooner trust me than you," Sarah retorted, not really paying attention to the flowers she pored over.  
  
Jareth stood and crossed the cavern in an ostentatious manner, crushing the flower she was about to pick with the heel of his immaculate boot.  
  
"Relax, Sarah," he said, peering down his nose at her. "That wasn't tarkenast."  
  
Sarah released a huffy sigh and stormed towards the stream bank, folding her arms across her chest in an infantile fashion.  
  
"Will you just leave me alone?"  
  
"Oh, and here was me thinking I'd been missed." Jareth put on an expression of mock hurt and set his gloved palms to his heart. "What a pity."  
  
"Don't you *ever* get it?" Sarah yelled, spinning on her heel. "I *hate* you! I really, really -." She faltered. "Hate you."  
  
The Goblin King drifted into the path of light, cutting off her psychological escape.  
  
"I find that very hard to believe," he said. "I thought I'd let you know how well you were getting on."  
  
Sarah, arms akimbo, gave him an uninterested stare.  
  
"You're doing remarkably well."  
  
Sarah sucked her teeth. "And that would make you happy because...?"   
  
"Because, what you are doing remarkably well *at* is falling into every trap I lay out for you and not succeeding in rescuing a single friend intact," he sniggered.  
  
"Just go away," she snarled. "You don't frighten me. You're only stalling because you know I've nearly defeated you, AGAIN. You're just a -."  
  
"Stop!" Jareth commanded, holding up a hand. Sarah was surprised at how quickly she wilted under his arctic gaze. "I believe you are challenging me, girl."  
  
Sarah answered, finding her voice, "You can't hurt me."  
  
A set of three crystals imploded into existence as Jareth rotated his wrist. Allowing them to start a mesmerising dance, he took one into his other hand and let the other two continue. Sarah had been about to run but he sent the pair of spinning orbs to land at her feet. Instantly, two snakes bound around her legs, threatening to crush her and hissing dangerously.  
  
The Goblin King moved pitilessly slow, rolling the remaining crystal back and forth as he neared.  
  
"Now, Sarah. What would you like me to do with this one?"  
  
Sarah yearned to tell him precisely where he could shove it but he was too close now, the cinnamon scent too strong, the terror too overpowering. She stared, open-mouthed, as he reached out and balanced the crystal on her head then stepped back to observe her in satisfaction. Any attempt to move her arms from her sides resulted in a warning couplet of a squeeze and a hiss at her ankles.  
  
"I think it's time you and I had a more elaborate conversation," Jareth spoke with a saccharine tone. "Enough of these idiotic riddles." He paced regally before her. "As long as you keep my crystal where it is, I will ensure your...friends...are not discovered in that cosy little alcove."  
  
Sarah trembled in her anger.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"You've got a habit of leaving me, Sarah. I endeavour to know what exactly it is that makes you so keen to resist my offers." (1)  
  
She was aware of the ambiguity in his words, knowing that he referred to the promise of granting her dreams and her success in retrieving her brother, yet sensing an underlying air laced with desire. Sarah feared him - she cursed the spell - perspiring in the effort to steady the glass ball nestled in her hair. It was hopeless. He knew every emotion she owned, every desperation. The only part of her that was truly hidden was that which made her choices, her superego, and she prayed that he would never gain control. Otherwise, she would be nothing more than a puppet.  
  
"The only things you've ever offered me would cause misery and suffering," she answered slowly.  
  
Jareth had crossed lithely to the rock and had perched again upon its worn surface. He tipped his head to one side in a beautifully feline manner.  
  
"Do I make you suffer, Sarah?" he asked in a voice that aroused doubt as to whether his concern was truly false.  
  
"I was talking about my friends," Sarah said, glaring. "And my family."  
  
"I have only ever done what has been asked of me. How selfish can one girl be I ask you?" Jareth noticed the look on her face that said 'you hypocrite' but raced to maintain the lead of this talk. "It is only fair that I balance out my generosity with some of my own wants. I gave you a world where you could own everything, and still you were not satisfied."  
  
"You stole my memories!" Sarah growled, struggling to stay calm. "You spun me lies and even in that dream you treated my friends as slaves!"  
  
"Because you desired it."  
  
"I would never have had the people most true to me thrown out of my life!"  
  
"Don't deny your humanity, Sarah. You wanted to be the centre of attention," Jareth said, patronisingly. "How could that be possible with all of those creatures milling around leading their pointless lives and getting in your way?"  
  
"Bullshit!" Sarah snarled, the crystal rocking dangerously on her scalp.  
  
Jareth watched it settle, unaltered by her outburst. "Careful, Sarah. Being uptight will get you nowhere. I never intended to hurt you."  
  
Sarah laughed bitterly.  
  
"Oh really? Then what about Ambrosius?"  
  
The Goblin King pulled a wry face. Sarah sighed, clearly irritated.  
  
"The dog. Sir Didymus' dog. The great big *thing* you sent to kill me!" she seethed.  
  
"Ah yes, the puppy with the cowardice problem. I had wondered when he would turn up. He's been worrying my guards for weeks," Jareth chuckled. "Remind me to thank the water girl for clearing that up."  
  
"I could've died," Sarah said through gritted teeth.  
  
Jareth shrugged, sending a series of ripples across the surface of his thin cloak, the material galaxy of glitter a twinkling insolence.  
  
"I fail to see your point, love."  
  
Sarah's eyes were watering. It seemed as though the crystal were becoming heavier the longer she stood. A distant part of her pleaded for her to drop to her knees and sob at his feet, but she had already played that card and it had not come up King of Hearts. 'Why is he running me around my own mind like a rat in a maze?' her head whined. Why did he have to make things so difficult? There was something else about him, besides the twisted and unfazed attitudes, other than the lascivious spices that did not merely hang about him but melded and danced within his very essence. But what was it?  
  
"Why do you keep bringing me back here?" she asked suspiciously.  
  
Jareth retained his equable aura, the soft and chilling composure that served to cause as much discomfort as fingernails on a chalkboard.  
  
"Sarah..." He tut-tutted. "You mustn't undervalue my title. Goblins are inquisitive and troublesome by nature. As sovereign of these creatures, it is my duty to take hold of every opportunity that passes."  
  
"Your *duty*?" the girl sneered, wincing as a serpent tugged itself tighter.  
  
"Very well, *pleasure* then," Jareth corrected. "Do you really expect me to sit in my dreary castle all day, every day and ignore the chance to cause a girl some distress? Especially you, Miss Williams, after what you did to my kingdom." He congratulated himself; sure he had thrown her off the trail of thought that he could possibly care about her.  
  
Sarah could bear it no longer.  
  
"You're such a heartless bastard!" she yelled.  
  
The glass sphere rolled forward and dropped before her eyes. She gasped and made a grab for it, immediately feeling the crushing pain from the snakes binding her legs. Her wrist was caught abruptly by a firm grip. The crystal stopped, cushioned by a covered palm.  
  
Jareth raised it before her eyes, having evanesced from the rock to materialise beside her. He kept hold of her arm, pinching the flesh enough to make her wince.  
  
"Am I so?" asked the Goblin King. "He who never ceases to respond to your every whim?" He drew himself close, the tips of his boots just missing the serpents' tails. "Am I really *heartless*, Sarah?" The crystal lifted to brush her lips, he slid his hand from her wrist to her upper arm and smiled at the sharp intake of breath she made. "Do you not think I have lived up to my promise? Have I not been generous?"  
  
Jareth drew back the crystal from Sarah's face and leant forward, his nose in line with hers. She was holding her breath, arching her neck back to avoid him, shivering and paralysed from the reptile restraints. She kept her lips sealed, concealing the shameful water that lust induced.  
  
"Tell me again that this is not what you want," he said, now averting his gaze to the image that had appeared in the centre of the crystal.  
  
It was clearly Sarah, back in the masquerade in her sparkling, iridescent gown and her hair cascading amidst an embellishment of jewels and braids. Her expression was not so forlorn. Instead, she bore a bittersweet smile as she waltzed gracefully with the same breathtaking partner, watched by a crowd of masked dancers.  
  
Sarah saw the vision of herself trip, only to be caught in the arms of the man she loved and hated. She turned her head away to subdue the nausea building inside. Jareth continued to watch the scene with a sly grin, amused by the sight of himself showing so much compassion and mouthing the words to his old song. His pointed teeth revealed themselves, apparently to do with something that had happened in the globe.  
  
"Oh dear Sarah, you've torn your dress." (2)  
  
Sarah shrugged out of his grip, her eyes burning.  
  
"You're nothing without your magic and your goblins. I'm not a part of your Labyrinth. You can't bend me to your rules." She now had his attention. "I'm not just another *thing* gift-wrapped with your name on it." The smile faded from his face. "Now you will leave me to finish off your stupid puzzle, take back my friends, and you..." She paused as she saw him clench his jaw, the crystal in his palm glowing red. "You can go back to your castle with your toys and rot for all I care." The glass ball gleamed white hot. "You won't hurt me."  
  
Jareth's free hand shot forward and fastened about her throat. The other brought the pulsing orb within millimetres of her face. The sphere of light contorted and twisted into a wriggling shape, darkening as he curled up his palm to hold part of it between finger and thumb.  
  
Sarah blanched, not daring to breathe, as the black scorpion struggled furiously to free its venomous tail. She gave out a whimper when the vicious pincers snapped close to her eye.  
  
"Never assume to know me, Sarah. You're not a little girl anymore. Games change." Jareth kept his callous stare, his left iris shimmering as a sun-caught ring of ice, the usual hazel of the right - the pallor of coal. "Now, open your mouth."  
  
The young woman's eyes were wide with terror. She quivered, aware that he could feel it when she swallowed. Her gaze flitted from the creature to the ruthless mask of the Goblin King, searching for reason.  
  
"Jareth...what are you doing?" she gasped, her voice a choked whisper.  
  
"I think I made myself quite clear." His tone grated. "Open your mouth."  
  
He grasped the back of her neck and hooked his fingers into the knots of her hair. Wrenching her head sharply, he dangled the scorpion over her lips, parted in soundless agony. Then he let go of the stinger. In the same instant, the two snakes transfigured into a pair of snickering goblins. They rushed forward and pushed her over the edge of the bank.  
  
Sarah spluttered stream-water and latched her hands onto dry land. Peering through her soaking mop of hair, she came eye to boot with her enemy. She growled and swiped at his ankle in an attempt to drag him down but to her surprise her hand passed straight through him.  
  
"I'll be seeing you," Jareth promised. "You have thirteen minutes before I send the next patrol into the caverns." He stepped back and melted into the air.  
  
Sarah hauled herself out of the stream and trudged into the centre of the grotto. The goblins had fled and there was no sign that anyone besides her had been here. Even the flower that Jareth had squashed was now in pristine condition. Jeez, what was it with that number that he liked so much? She supposed she should have been grateful he had said 'minutes' rather than 'seconds'.  
  
Glancing around the area at the vegetation, she recalled her quest. Where was that damn tarka-thingy? She cursed. She had forgotten what it was meant to look like.  
  
The mocking British voice resonated on the walls. //It's over there. //  
  
A patch of greenery illuminated itself for a few moments not far from the rock where Jareth had sat. Enchanted light revealed large clumps of blue leaves and tiny gold flowers, which Sarah hastily began to gather. When she had picked a sufficient load, the torch in its bracket took over as her primary means of vision.  
  
Something sparkled at her from the rock.  
  
Entirely made out of glass, a delicately crafted scorpion lay abandoned on the stone. The dim light refracted colours across the curved segments of a crystal body, leading to a tapered bulb that was empty of poison.  
  
Without further thought, Sarah pocketed it and returned through the caverns, leaving a trail of water droplets to soak into the earth.  
  
(Footnotes: (1) "You've got a habit of leaving me" is a quote from the D.B song with the same name. (2) Bowie fans - need I explain?) 


	10. Whispers in the water

(Author's note: *puffs and pants* this story will be the death of me!)  
  
Chapter X  
  
When Sarah returned to the alcove there was no sign of Lynden. Ludo was barely conscious, his head lolling against the wall and his breathing slow. He emitted a soft lowing noise that could only have been gratitude at his friend's return. Sarah knelt beside him and set the pile of tarkenast leaves next to her. She wrinkled her brow as she looked from the plants to the beast's injuries and brushed a hand through her hair, sighing in annoyance.  
  
"I wish I knew where she was," she grumbled. "I don't have a clue what to do and there's not enough time."  
  
The answer came from the direction of the stream.  
  
"He needs to eat them."  
  
Sarah looked out towards the still waters and called, "Lynden? That you?"  
  
There was no reply this time. She tapped Ludo on the cheek to keep him awake and she took up a handful of the dark blue leaves with a few golden flowers. Aiding him in opening his jaws, she pushed them into his mouth and closed it for him.  
  
"Come on Ludo, there's a good boy. Chew them up," she coaxed.  
  
Ludo grunted and there was a minute movement within his mouth.  
  
"Pla-," he began then swallowed. "Plant taste bad."  
  
"It's okay, it'll make you better," Sarah soothed. "Here, you must eat a bit more." She shovelled in another couple of handfuls despite his grimacing. "Do even the flowers taste horrible?"  
  
Ludo shook his head.  
  
"Ludo not want more," he said finally.  
  
Sarah nodded and took his furry hand, smiling as it engulfed her whole wrist in the process.  
  
"Well at least it's doing some good. Come on, Ludo, we have to get going. Can you walk?"  
  
Her friend pondered a moment - an agonisingly long moment, Sarah thought - then, with an almighty heave, pulled himself to his feet. He staggered unsteadily out of the alcove alongside his companion.  
  
Sarah stood at the edge of the path and scoured the water.  
  
"Lynden? Are you there?" she addressed the cavern. Still there was no answer. "If you are, we're very thankful for what you've done for us, for Ludo especially. We can't stay here, but you're welcome to come with us. Lynden?"  
  
"What?" The voice did not betray Lynden's whereabouts. Strangely, it carried an undertone of hostility.  
  
"Are you all right?" The stream did not allow a single deviant ripple. "Lynden, we have to go. I don't have time to-."  
  
"Then go," Lynden hissed from the dark.  
  
"I hope we meet again," Sarah said quietly, anxious to leave and stay at the same time. "Jareth will pay for what he did to you."  
  
That said, she led Ludo out of the cavern and continued along the winding path, banking on the notion that there was another way out at the end.  
  
Once Lynden was sure the coast was clear, she emerged from the stream, blended perfectly with the natural water. The torchlight flickered within her pellucid body and diluted her with the rage she was unable to express. She bowed her head in thought, the outlines of her eyes turning down at the ends in sadness. Then, she dove back into the stream and sped off with the course of the current.   
  
Sarah and Ludo had emerged from the caverns and found themselves in the centre of a vast swampland. Exotic trees smothered in lichen boasted their years across murky puddles, fat flies with ridiculously big bodies for their puny wings zigzagged lazily about the reeds, and birds twittered in the distance.  
  
The two friends rested a little while on a sturdy log situated on a wishbone-shaped area of firm ground. The beast had regained much of his strength, his wound no longer bleeding. Sarah took off her mud-coated shoes and began to massage her aching toes as she kept an eye on the swamp.  
  
"It can't be far now, Ludo," she said, her gurgling stomach agreeing. This was close to the place where she had eaten the drugged peach that Hoggle had given her. Poor Hoggle. She hoped that he was all right. Why hadn't Jareth shown him to her? Even mentioned his name?  
  
Sarah's thoughts were disturbed when Ludo started to growl.  
  
"Ludo? What's-."   
  
She stopped. A creature was watching them from the edge of the swamp. Familiar clear eyes lay behind a shroud of dirt and dry leaves. It had only just seemed to notice the debris clinging to its body and was now making an effort to shake it off.  
  
The leafy mass sighed. "Don't suppose you could give me a hand?"  
  
Ludo stopped growling and perked up at the voice. Sarah smiled and made her way over to the figure. In parting the twigs about its head, she uncovered the liquid face of Lynden.  
  
"Decided to join us after all?" Sarah giggled, peeling off what appeared to be half the forest from her friend's surface.  
  
Lynden nodded, rustling as she did. "Urgh, I can separate from the mud. That's easy. It's just these damn things! I'm always getting leaves stuck to me."  
  
Still picking bits off the girl here and there, Sarah sat once again on the log, in between Ludo and Lynden. There were a few moments of awkward silence, then...  
  
"I'm sorry for how I acted earlier," Lynden said.  
  
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you had a good reason," Sarah replied. "You saved our lives. We had no right to ask any more."  
  
Lynden shook her head and allowed her child voice to sound clearly above her typical watery tone.  
  
"Do you remember when I said I knew your name but couldn't tell you why?" She looked to Sarah for her cue to continue. "I knew because the water knew." Sarah was puzzled. "Whenever a mortal drinks from the water in the Labyrinth, they share their experiences with it. Every drop in the Underground is connected to me. I hold the memories and thoughts of nearly every creature that needs to drink to survive here." She hesitated. "Although, some drink for the mere pleasure of it."  
  
Sarah was intrigued.  
  
"Then you knew I'd been here before? You know why I'm here again," she implored. Her eyes widened. "You know...what happened in the cavern?"  
  
Lynden rested her chin in her hands, which was an odd sight since her fingertips melted into her face.  
  
"I know a lot more than that."  
  
Sarah frowned inquisitively.  
  
"I sensed your feelings." Lynden continued before Sarah could interject, "But I know it's just a spell. I know. Only, that's not what bothered me. What *is* bothering me is the King."  
  
"Jareth?" Sarah's expression creased with bewilderment. "Why? What does he have to do with anything?" She chided herself. What *didn't* involve him?  
  
"Jareth may not be mortal but he still drinks the water. Though he's always managed to create a sort of block to prevent his thoughts and desires from spilling into the stream. Until recently." Lynden lifted her face to the sky, craning her neck as if it were pressured with unwanted knowledge. "He was careless the last time his lips met the water. Sometimes I think he does it just to spite me. He knows I can feel his magic. It's dark and painful, but now the waters carry messages that are deafening. One message. The strongest want that Jareth possesses is screaming within every particle of the Labyrinth."  
  
Sarah had been holding her breath, letting it slip out with her question. "And what does the Goblin King want?"  
  
"You truly do not know?" Lynden replied with despair and disbelief.  
  
Sarah shook her head uncertainly. She felt the dread envelop her as she observed the awful syllable forming at her friend's translucent mouth.  
  
"You." 


	11. Sole survivor

Chapter XI  
  
Sarah had needed to embed her fingernails into the grains of the log as the dizziness swept through her.  
  
"I don't understand," she said meekly.  
  
It was not possible, she thought. Sure, she had had her suspicions. How he was constantly appearing, toying with her and even the reason for her being in this place again. Why *was* she here? Not just to rescue her friends. Her mind ached. If he wanted her so badly, why put her through all of this gruelling torment? Lynden was mistaken, wasn't she? The whole idea was absurd - he had rejected her, laughed at her and threatened her existence. The only reason he could want her would be out of vengeance, she decided, to make up for his defeat, but had she not already paid enough?  
  
"What more does he want of me? I built his stupid castle, I fell for his silly games, I'm running his goddamn maze-."  
  
"Jareth doesn't like to lose," Lynden cut in. "He's done this twice before. He blackmailed and cheated them into his realm again after they rescued their children."  
  
"Only twice?" Sarah asked, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Do you mean only two angered him enough to do it?"  
  
"No, I mean only two have ever completed the Labyrinth before you. That I'm aware of anyway."  
  
Sarah paled.  
  
"Th-they did it again though, right? He let them off?" she asked.  
  
Lynden glanced down at her feet.  
  
"One was brought back so many times that he drove her insane. She did return home, but only to be taken into care."  
  
Sarah was horrified. "And the other?"  
  
"He chose a wrong door."  
  
Tears formed in the human girl's eyes at the thought of all the people who had failed to rescue their siblings or offspring from the Goblin King. No wonder Lynden had reacted to her feelings with such loathing.  
  
"But why was it so hard for them? I'm just an ordinary girl!" she sobbed, allowing Ludo, who was listening but barely understanding, to put a paw about her.  
  
"I don't think people realise how easy it is for them to lose. Jareth is all-powerful here, but not over the mortals themselves," Lynden explained. "He isn't exactly untruthful when he calls himself 'generous', although he usually is capable of being more so." She sighed, her open mouth giving way to a toothless cave of shadowed water. "The only times people have won were either because he slacked or became caught up in his arrogance. I can feel it in the air when he's angry. The streams burn."  
  
Sarah bit her lip but Lynden continued. "Except with you, something is different. The Labyrinth confuses itself somehow. Whenever you pass an obstacle, I don't hurt as much as I should." She shrugged. "This place likes it when you win."  
  
Sarah put her shoes back on and got up from her seat, her attention now drawn to the path ahead.  
  
"Then that's what I'm going to do," she said firmly. "Spell or no spell, Jareth can't have me, but I *will* find my friends."  
  
Ludo and Lynden walked up either side of her.  
  
"You're coming?" Sarah asked the water child in astonishment.  
  
"Would I pass up the chance to see Mr Overdressed slip over on his pompous behind?" Lynden laughed. "With you all the way."  
  
Sarah grinned at this, concealing her indignance as to the insult her friend had used. What was wrong with his clothes? Perfectly normal if you ask me, she thought. Put it this way, there's no hope of Jareth driving *me* insane. It's far too late.  
  
The three companions set off through the swamplands and into the mists, halted for a mere few seconds by a yelp and a loud rustling. A watery voice echoed in the marshes.  
  
"Sodding leaves."  
  
***  
  
As the journey progressed, the air became clearer and allowed the friends to travel at a quicker pace. They were muddied from head to toe, having pulled one another out of various oozing pits along the way. Sarah looked to the waters either side of her and noticed they had lost their density, no longer filled with grime and silt. They were almost pure and as she squinted, she swore she could see shapes moving in the depths.  
  
"The Pools of Seeing," Lynden informed, stopping with her to observe them. "Every being imaginable can be seen in those reflections. They're all living people."  
  
Sarah was lost in the mingling images, like spirits but distinctly colourful, each one different, mostly humans, but some were like nothing she had ever seen before. Amongst her kind were animals she recognised; other creatures lived out their lives with gleaming eyes (she assumed they were eyes), or cylindrical ears. There was even - these visions amazed her the most - an entire species that contrasted the radiant tones of the other images with ashen faces and jet-black cloaks.  
  
"Does Jareth use these to watch people?" she wondered.  
  
"He doesn't need to," Lynden answered. "His crystals show him what he wants to see and there is rumour that he prefers not to look into these things for too long. They say things can look back."  
  
"The reflections can see you?" Sarah asked, retreating from the edge.  
  
"No, they have no knowledge of us. But we don't think we're the only world that uses these pools," came the sinister reply. "Speak a name and think of someone, and you may look upon anyone you choose."  
  
Sarah knelt at the side of the nearest pool and stared into it.  
  
"Toby," she spoke and gaped in wonder as the surface rippled, wiping the images clean and replacing them with a shimmering image of her little brother. He lay fast asleep in his bed, just as she had left him. Time had hardly passed.  
  
Relieved, his sister broke her gaze from the pool and permitted the sea of figures to clutter the scene once more.  
  
"Hoggle," she commanded. Instantly, she found herself looking directly at a section of the Goblin King's throne room, but a frown passed across her face. "That's not Hoggle, Lynden, what's going on?" All she saw was a little old man wearing tattered rags and a crooked crown, helplessly chained to a wall.  
  
"That's not your friend?" Lynden said with surprise. "Then why would the King have him there?"  
  
Sarah gazed hard at the prisoner. "Maybe you're right. Things are never as they seem." She paused. "God, I really need to stop saying that."  
  
Ludo patted her on her shoulder and uttered something softly.  
  
"Where Brother?"  
  
Sarah knew at once that he meant Sir Didymus, the brave fox creature with the eye patch, whom she had seen in Jareth's crystal and, indeed, in her dream. Believing him to be still in his cell, she called his name into the reflections and was granted with the image she had expected. Ludo growled and looked away from the vision of Didymus battling valiantly against his chains.  
  
Lynden had wandered further down the path.  
  
"Sarah!" she shouted. "There's a door over here!"  
  
"I'll be there in a minute!" Sarah bellowed back, not bothering to question the ludicrousness of a door in the middle of a swamp. "Ludo, you go on. I'll catch up." The beast nodded and reluctantly headed off in Lynden's direction.  
  
Sarah remained alone with the soothing yet eerie dance of the moving portraits in front of her. One thought tossed back and forth in her mind, irritating as an itch that could not be reached. She took in a deep breath, closed her eyes and voiced a final name into the depths.   
  
Opening her eyes, she was unable to blink for fear of losing the sight she beheld. A room of deep violet and black glittered in the pool, the intricate swirls of gold on the carpet devoid of items. All but a curious pyramid of diamonds sticking upwards and providing light for the person who was languishing against the wall, a book in hand.  
  
Sarah realised that something was not quite right with this scene when she looked at the ceiling of the room. Objects were hanging without support; large; small; curved; sharp; but it was the structure iced with rumpled sheets that gave it away. This was Jareth's chamber. And it was upside-down.  
  
Jareth turned another page of 'The Labyrinth', gravity squealing and fleeing before it would dare disturb the arrangement of his fountaining hair. He tapped the inverted candelabra idly with his foot as it flickered. Sarah willed the viewpoint of the picture to rotate behind him in order to see the part of the story he was so interested in. She gasped. Words were zipping about like flies and rearranging themselves upon the page as he read.  
  
He's rewriting the story to his own liking, she thought. She began to read the sentence he was making.  
  
"The princess was so close now to completing her quest, but little did she know that the insidious Goblin King was watching her with his-." She saw the word 'mismatched' disintegrate. "-disparate eyes." There was an uncomfortable delay, and then more text began to appear. Sarah's heart skipped a beat when the letters, without speech marks, locked into position.  
  
I CAN SEE YOU  
  
She cried out as Jareth whirled to glare at her and reached towards her with a clawing hand. However, he was not grabbing for her. His fingers seemed to take hold of the top of the vision's frame. With a snarl, he wrenched the blackness down like a blind. The image vanished.  
  
Sarah was already running flat out after her friends, not even hazarding a backward glance. 


	12. Into the jungle

(Author's note: Sorry about the slow pace of these updates guys, am having trouble with the motivation! Apologies also for the severe shortness of my chapters :p Thank you all for your reviews, keep 'em coming!)  
  
Chapter XII  
  
The door was widely set inside a stone archway, a slab of mahogany attached to a building of sandstone bricks. From the outside, the structure seemed to contain only one room, squatting miserably in the vast swamplands. Sarah observed there was no handle or even a knocker to gain entry, merely a flat, brass, oblong plaque that could only have been a peephole. However, the means to open it was not this side of the door.  
  
Shrugging to her companions, Sarah stepped up and rapped on the wood. There was a brief scuffling and a repulsive squelching sound then, finally, the metal slat slid across to reveal a peculiar pair of eyes on stalks.  
  
"What's the password?" asked a gurgling voice.  
  
"Password?" Sarah replied. "We don't know any password."  
  
She heard a grunt and the brass sheet sealed up again. Before she could protest, there came a series of loud knocks. A tiny handle appeared on her side of the sheet. Bewildered, Sarah tugged it aside and began a staring competition with the creature behind the door.  
  
"Well?" it said impatiently after several minutes.  
  
"Well what?"  
  
"You're supposed to tell me the password," it sighed. "Otherwise I'll be stuck here all night."  
  
Sarah was totally baffled by now.  
  
"Let me get this straight. You want to come through the door too?"  
  
"No, I want to sit here for a week until my glooboids dry," came the sarcastic response. "Tell me the password so I can get through!"  
  
"We want to get through as well!" Lynden said, beginning to get annoyed. "We don't know the damn word!"  
  
"Look," said the creature, ignoring her. "I'll tell you the word to get to my side, and you tell me the one to get to your side. Fair?"  
  
Lynden had been about to give out a piece of her mind but Sarah interrupted hastily.  
  
"Deal!" She did not even stop to see her friend's puzzled expression. "On the count of three. One, two, three..."  
  
"Fairy-cakes."  
  
"Doodlebug."  
  
The door made a sudden click and then swung open with a grating noise. Sarah, Lynden and Ludo sidled past the giant, purple-spotted slug that belched out a 'thank you' and went on his way.  
  
As they entered the new surroundings, Lynden turned to Sarah to ease her confusion.  
  
"How did you know what to say?"  
  
"I didn't," Sarah laughed. "I made it up. I figured that it didn't matter what you said as long as you both said a word. Not really that hard when you think about it."  
  
They had arrived in an interminable expanse of a lush rainforest. Exotic trees and flowers dripped water and nectar onto the overgrown carpet of grasses. Pink and yellow and blue birds swooped high and low, sporting ribbon-length tail feathers. The soothing rush of a waterfall sounded somewhere ahead, renewing the embodied travellers' thirsts.  
  
"Where are we?" Sarah asked in awe as she clasped Ludo's hand, the great beast feeling an equal sense of fascination.  
  
Lynden, who was just a distortion in the forest scenery, began to tread further through the trees.  
  
"I've heard of this place, though I've never seen it myself," she said. "Supposedly it leads to the back entrance of the Goblin City."  
  
Sarah and Ludo followed closely behind, taking care not to trample some of the larger plants in case they decided to fight back. It was not long until the companions reached a section of the jungle that was untouched by sunlight, a narrow strip of gloom that heralded a bright glade several metres beyond.  
  
A few steps in, Lynden called for them to stop.  
  
"Wait here."  
  
The atmosphere in this area was fearfully ominous, not a movement seen save that of the water girl creeping through the centre. She paused and glanced at the rows of asparagus-shaped plants either side of her. Eyeing them warily, she took another few paces.  
  
Sarah watched anxiously from the border between shadow and light, squeezing her monster-friend's paw to comfort him. Her gaze drifted across the grass adjacent to her feet. It was almost too black for even shadow. Stooping to inspect it, she was astonished when a sooty residue came off onto her fingertips. The ground had been charred by an intense heat.  
  
The thought struck her and she shouted urgently, "Lynden! Get out of there!"  
  
The leaves of the plants were already uncurling. Huge buds atop snaking stems peeled out of the leaves, their petals spiralling out into spiculate flowers. Lynden froze as the dark rings in the centre of the blossoms started to glow.  
  
"Shit."  
  
Beams of light shot out from all directions, blinding the onlookers. The buds closed and the flowers retracted back into their leaves. Sarah and Ludo removed their hands form their faces. Lynden was gone.  
  
Sarah screamed out in anguish but was drowned out as Ludo raised his head to the sky and howled with all his might. She grabbed the fur of his shoulder and pleaded, tears coursing down her cheeks. He did not stop.  
  
"Ludo! Please don't. There's no point!" she cried. "We're in a rainforest. There're no rocks."  
  
Ludo ignored her and changed the pitch of his lowing wail. The earth shook beneath their feet, rumbling from the distance to harmonise with the beast's voice. A rhythmic thundering ensued, something pounded in the undergrowth, becoming louder as it neared.  
  
Sarah gaped as what looked like a massive stack of rocks tumbled onto the ash-covered path. Stone spines shivered from a chiselled head to a skeletal tail, fish-bone spikes fanned out as parts of folded wings at its flanks. The creature slammed a granite fist on the first plant that opened, crushing it with ease. Limbs and teeth slashed and tore, uprooting every squealing flower head in the rows.  
  
When all was still, the towering creature turned its sloping head towards the two companions and regarded them with green lizard-like eyes.  
  
"Methis plants," it said solemnly. It had a voice similar to the sound of a finger tracing the rim of a glass but amplified considerably. "Chemosynthetic flowers. They don't need the light to survive. They feed off the flesh of animals for energy."  
  
Sarah swallowed.  
  
"Thank you, I-," she stammered, breaking off as the living mass of rubble approached.  
  
"It's been a long time, Ludo," it growled gently to the beast at her side. "I was wondering when I would see you again. But you are sad...what troubles the friend of Pterelas?" (1)  
  
Ludo moaned a reply, "Water girl go."  
  
Sarah was on the verge of offering an explanation but the creature inclined its snout mournfully and spoke again.  
  
"You have lost a friend here. I regret not arriving sooner." He looked down at Sarah for the first time. "Forgive my rudeness. I am Pterelas and you must be Sarah. Ludo has told me what he could about you. He also tells me you defeated the King and rescued your brother, of which I am glad and hope now to know you better. As the only rock dragon in the Underground, it does me well to keep updated. He motioned to the glade ahead. "Come, we have much to discuss."  
  
Ludo nudged Sarah affectionately to give her the incentive to move. Pterelas turned and walked on all fours through the debris, his segmented tail swishing back and forth.  
  
A drop of rain splattered onto his grey muzzle from the canopy overhead. He stopped in his tracks and tilted his head to listen to the fluttering of wings in the treetops. More droplets sprinkled upon him then, without further warning, a torrent of water splashed over his face, startling the two companions behind.  
  
Pterelas blinked at the small girl that perched on the end of his nose. At least, he assumed it was a girl and that his eyes were not deceiving him.  
  
"Uh...hi?" she said, the watery lines of her lips becoming a nervous smile.  
  
"Lynden!"  
  
The water child grinned and peered down at the surprised and relieved Sarah.  
  
"Hey! Sorry about that! Took me longer to condense than I thought." She giggled.  
  
Sarah beamed and wiped away a mud-stained tear.  
  
"If I didn't know I was going to get soaked, I'd hug you."  
  
The party of friends, new and old, laughed merrily and journeyed on into the open, sunlit glade.  
  
(Footnote: (1) Pterelas = In Mythology...Greek I think...this is the name of one of Actaeon's fifty dogs. It means 'winged one'.) 


	13. Visitor in the glade

(Author's note: Sorry for the long wait! I hope chapter thirteen is to your liking, being Jareth's favourite number and all. It feels so good to put him in chapters, I hate it when he misses out :p Apologies for the forthcoming shortness and slowness since extreme lack of time - DFQ xx)  
  
Chapter XIII  
  
"What're you doing?"  
  
The day had decided to draw to a close and Sarah was watching Lynden from her place on the bank of the pool. Her friend was standing waist deep in the steady current that was churned by a frothing waterfall, her liquid eyelids closed and her hands lost beneath the surface.  
  
"The water is so pure here," Lynden said. "The Labyrinth is clearer than ever. I can feel so many emotions. It feels...amazing." She raised her arms out of the water and looked at Sarah, who was stifling a yawn. "I think you should take Ludo's advice." She nodded at the slumbering beast further inland. "Go get some rest. I don't need sleep. I can keep watch."  
  
Sarah agreed and got to her feet. She paused in her movement towards the middle of the clearing.  
  
"Pterelas said he would come with us to the Goblin City," she said, receiving an acknowledging bob of the head. She smiled at Lynden then she walked into the glade.  
  
The rock dragon lay motionless beside Ludo's snoring bulk, the pair seeming ever the more docile among the colourful flowers that gleamed in the dimming light. Sarah stretched out on the grass between them and was shortly accompanying them in sleep.  
  
Lynden resumed her exploration of the river's secrets, allowing the current to drift them through her, to merge with her. So many pleasant memories and a few tearful ones, none of them her own, absorbed into her knowledge. Lives of the oblivious and innocent inhabitants of the Underground, the humour and frivolous nature of goblins caused her to tingle with laughter.  
  
She felt the water grow warmer and the tingling increase. The emotions became more vivid, the river flowed faster, the sentiments much stronger. Still the temperature rose, just below an uncomfortable heat as Lynden envisioned the changes in the Labyrinth. She twitched violently, a burning sensation spreading through her arms.  
  
Something was wrong. The pictures in her mind became a myriad of flickering images, too fast and distressing to understand. Feelings of intense anger and pain, feelings she did own but were not nearly so powerful, flowed into her limbs with the heat that was now unbearable. The Labyrinth itself cowered. She could sense it, like a trembling creature, it writhed in self-pity. Now the images were taken over by a sole vision of blazing orange. Her inner sight was clogged with smoke and her fingers stung. Fire!  
  
Lynden tore herself from the water network of information and whirled around to see the figure that stood behind her, the soles of his boots resting lightly on the river's surface.  
  
"Lynden," he said solemnly, staring through her as though she were glass. "Can you smell something burning?"  
  
She did not allow herself the time to wreak a long-awaited vengeance or her hatred upon her king. Turning to look over her shoulder, Lynden observed a curl of smoke rising above the treetops. Without a second thought, she had leapt out of the water and was running into the forest.  
  
Jareth traced the calming waters with each foot crossing ahead of the other until he reached the bank. The amusement he would normally have shown at his own devious trickery was absent; his gaze distinctly colder, black streaks of mascara bleeding from his eyes. He walked into the clearing, treading carefully into the midst of the sleeping friends.  
  
Passing the rock dragon coolly, he stopped alongside the smaller beast that had been his former prisoner. Unwavering in his expression, the Goblin King produced a crystal inside his cloak, less glittering than it once was, and let it slither from his sleeve in the form of a serpent.  
  
The snake wound through the grass towards the resting beast and tightened about his throat. Ludo convulsed in his sleep but lay still again when the viper faded against his fur.  
  
Keeping himself hidden behind his material shroud, Jareth turned his attention to the young woman nearby.  
  
* * * *  
  
Lynden squinted in the smoke and cursed. There was no sign of any flames and there was no evidence of destruction. Nothing scorched save for the remains of the old methis plants. She scanned the ground and noticed a colony of small, rabbit-like creatures. Each one coughed out a cloud of sullied steam. A diversion.  
  
A look of horrific realisation crossed Lynden's face.  
  
"Sarah..."  
  
She bolted back through the jungle.  
  
* * * *  
  
The Goblin King knelt beside Sarah, taking in every detail that was visible of her mortal being. Her cheeks were flecked with the traces of dirt she had omitted when she had bathed in the river. Her worn clothes were damp; she had not dared to strip in a place that was so watched. This instilled his admiration for her as well as the maddening hunger.  
  
Jareth leant forward and allowed his cloak to part from his chest, at once revealing a crude streak of red beneath the unbuttoned half of his shirt - a wound that was poorly disguised by his pendant. His emotionless façade was interrupted for the brief moment his collar brushed the cut and he winced.  
  
"Sarah, my Sarah," he whispered as the tips of his gloved fingers hovered thoughtfully near her pale, white throat.   
  
She appeared so innocent, so uncorrupted, but he knew better. There were few who could deceive him. He shivered strangely, his hand clawed, poised like a deciding talon.  
  
"Do you not know how easily I could extinguish you? So simple..." He brushed her cheekbones with a feather-light touch. "Could I do that? Snap your delicate little neck and leave you here for your friends to find? Maybe then you would cease to torment me."  
  
Once again he gritted his teeth in pain. He drew his finger across the fresh cut and applied it to the side of her face, painting a symbol in his own blood. Then he leant back on his heels and watched her. It could only have been for a few minutes that he stared at Sarah, in the way that a child would, yet somehow his injury managed to seal and had already become a scar.  
  
"I won't let you leave," he said, breaking himself from his trance.  
  
It was just as he leant forward to kiss her that Lynden stumbled back into the clearing and sighted him.  
  
"Get off her! Sarah!" she yelled.  
  
The rock dragon and the beast woke. Sarah sat up as Jareth shimmered out of visibility. Lynden rushed over to her, doing her best to put an aqueous, comforting hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Sarah, are you okay? Jareth, he was-."  
  
"I know," Sarah replied vacantly.  
  
Then she lay back down and fell asleep. 


	14. The gate to the Goblin City

(Author's note: Immense apologies for the lateness of this chapter. Stupid college and laziness gets in the way! Hope you enjoy this one. It gets a bit more light-humoured. Thanks again for the reviews! - DFQ xx)  
  
Chapter XIV  
  
The beast, the dragon and the water child had waited until the morning light had reached the glade before waking Sarah gently. She got to her feet without a sound, aware that every eye was upon her, and then she crossed to the river to see her reflection. The mark on her left cheek was the shape of a three-pointed star, red and sparkling - the blood of a Goblin King. Dipping her hand in the water, she splashed it on her face and rubbed away at the stain. However, it did not fade, not even a smudge.  
  
As though nothing had happened, she turned to her companions and motioned to the path they had discussed before they had retired to sleep.  
  
"Next stop, the Goblin City," she said wearily.  
  
Once the group had begun moving again, Lynden dropped back to walk alongside the rock dragon travelling at his own pace behind the orange-furred monster and the human.  
  
"Something troubles you also, young one?"  
  
Lynden inclined her head then whispered, "I wondered what the symbol means. It's like his pendant. Why would he put that on Sarah?"  
  
"It is difficult ascertain the reason," Pterelas replied. "The sign is his family crest, but I am in doubt as to which motif he has for making such a mark on our mortal friend."  
  
Lynden looked at him a little blanker than was possible with her pupil-lacking eyes. The rock dragon chuckled kindly.  
  
"My apologies. Being treated as a pile of rocks for so long causes me to be as open as one. Tell me, young one, why would you place your family crest on something?"  
  
The girl of water thought for a moment then answered, "To prove that I owned it." Her mouth dropped open at her own words.  
  
Pterelas nodded.  
  
"Or," he added. "If you wanted to mark an unfinished task. After all, it was drawn with his own blood and Jareth, to my knowledge, has never allowed anyone to see him so weak. I fear that sign may be a promise of death." He hesitated at the horror-stricken face of the water child. "But do not worry yourself, Lynden. Whatever the King's plan, we will be here to protect Sarah. She will not be a victim."  
  
Lynden clenched her liquid jaw in determination, recalling her own ill fate.  
  
"No, Pterelas, she won't."  
  
Further ahead, Sarah had taken Ludo's paw again as she pushed along the jungle path. He was unusually quiet even for the monosyllabic talker that he was, not making so much as a grunt when stray branches swatted him on the nose.  
  
"Ludo, are you okay?" she asked.  
  
He did not answer, just squeezed her palm a little.  
  
"Don't be scared," she soothed. "We can call the rocks to help us. Like last time."  
  
At this, Ludo stopped in his tracks and caused Sarah to stumble. Lynden and Pterelas caught up.  
  
"What's up with Ludo?" wondered the water girl, to the agreement of everyone else.  
  
The beast put a paw to his throat and rubbed it as though it were sore.  
  
"Something wrong with your voice?"  
  
He nodded at Sarah then started opening and closing his mouth, expelling air but no vocal sound.  
  
"He can't talk!" Sarah exclaimed. "We can't call for the rocks without Ludo!"  
  
"Then we will have to make do with *me*," said Pterelas.  
  
"And me!" Lynden joined in. "Goblin weapons are no match for the likes of living water!"  
  
Ludo smiled despite his predicament and began walking again, pulling Sarah down the overgrown path, the others following. It was not long until the vegetation broke out into a dusty patch of land in front of an enormous, stone wall. The friends peeped through the bushes at a towering gateway, guarded by two armoured sentinels, four feet tall - if they stood on each other's heads.  
  
Sarah wondered why goblins needed such an excessively large entrance. Were they compensating? Maybe it wasn't for the goblins. Maybe it was in case a really tall person had to run the Labyrinth. She considered the height of it, rejecting the thought as ridiculous. Of course! How could the measurement be anything less than thirteen feet?  
  
"What do you propose, Sarah?" asked a low voice.  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"What should we do?" Pterelas repeated, his syntax adjusting from its usual etiquette that was eerily akin to the Goblin King's.  
  
"I have an idea," Lynden chirped. "I'm going to give them the fright of their lives!"  
  
Sarah was about to advise against whatever her friend was planning, but Lynden had already emerged from her hiding place. She sank onto the earth, retracting her human form into a pool of water and slithered towards the guards.  
  
The left-hand guard yawned at his post and glanced over at his companion. He lifted his visor and regarded the goblin with disgust. The right-hand guard's helmet squeaked around to return his gaze.  
  
"Wot?" the indignant creature said, his minute voice echoing.  
  
The left goblin tapped his foot and pointed to the spreading puddle of liquid between the right goblin's legs. The accused looked aghast.  
  
"I ain't done nuffink!"  
  
Too busy squabbling, the guards did not notice the puddle creep behind them and rise up, melding into the shape of a girl. Lynden casually reached over and tapped them on their shoulders. Both goblins turned and silenced. A muffled noise came from the right-hand one's helmet, sounding for all the world like 'I told you so'. Then they screamed, collided with a metallic clang and fell in a stunned heap.  
  
Lynden gestured for the others to come out from the hedges. The human, beast, and dragon passed the dazed guards and pushed open the gate. As Sarah had suspected, it was not going to be any easier entering the city from the back or the front and she swallowed as a secondary metal gate slammed together before them. Just like the first time, an iron monstrosity came alive; eyes gleaming; advancing slowly with the fearsome boom of "WHO GOES?"  
  
Pterelas roared and reared up on his hind legs, almost the same size as the lumbering robot. He gnashed his granite teeth and gripped onto the handle of the axe that was swung by mechanical hands, grounding his weight in an effort to push the thing back.  
  
"Sarah...you and the others...get going," he growled from his stalemate position.  
  
"But Pterelas-."  
  
"Go!" he snarled in his frenzy, his voice mingling with the robot's monotonous demand of identification.  
  
Sarah made for the gate with Ludo but stopped.  
  
"Where's Lynden?"  
  
* * * *  
  
The pilot of the robot guard was pressing buttons as if he were playing an organ symphony, twiddling various knobs and dials and jerking multiple levers. Lights and buzzers blinked on and off around his head and a peculiar trumpet device served as a megaphone to transform his rodent utterances into the outward boom.  
  
In the midst of his fervent cackling, the primary control panel fizzed suddenly. He yelped and sucked his finger, flinching at a cluster of sparks that whizzed past his ears. He could not have been more surprised when the watery head of a girl popped up through the interface.  
  
"Hello!" Lynden beamed at the startled goblin. "Oh, I'm sorry, was that the main circuit I messed up?"  
  
The pilot stammered unintelligibly. Lynden's arm swept inside the entrails of the robot, resulting in several mild explosions. The majority of the lights faded out.  
  
"Oops, I'll bet that was important," the water girl cringed. "Ooh!" She had spied a bright red button poking out from the panel of controls. "I wonder what that one does!"  
  
The goblin struck up a terrified jabbering, managing to invent a single word by streaming the one frantic 'No!' fifteen times and at an astonishing rate. Lynden traced her liquid finger a millimetre from the circuit that connected to the button marked EJECT.  
  
"Who goes?" she asked, grinning malevolently.  
  
The miserable creature swallowed.  
  
"M-me?"  
  
Lynden sparked the mechanism. A shrieking goblin and his seat shot through the roof of the metal monster and hurtled over the city wall. Now meeting no resistance from his opponent, Pterelas called for clearance and bulled the towering robot forwards, buckling the metal gate from its hinges. The four friends found themselves inside the Goblin City, and they were expected. Two-dozen goblins mounted on lizards barred the way to the castle, pointing the tips of their lances at the intruders.  
  
The awkward silence was broken only by the mindless babbling of a solitary chicken that strayed between the two parties, stealing the attention. It was only Sarah who looked elsewhere. Her eyes settled upon the imposing structure of Jareth's castle, remembering the dream, and it filled her with sickness. 


	15. Once even friends

Chapter XV  
  
(So, so sorry about the age of a wait. Had a lot of coursework and severe bout of laziness, plus I was part of a play! *breathes*)  
  
The companions huddled closer together during the uneasy silence that passed between the two parties. A few of the mounted goblins muttered to each other as though there were some disagreement as to their orders. Their steeds, two-legged reptiles with unkempt tufts of hair between horse-like ears, pawed the ground with their claws and sniffed themselves.  
  
Lynden glanced sideways at Sarah, unbeknownst to the guards or Sarah for that matter - having no pupils could really get annoying. She resorted to tapping a wet foot on the floor to catch her notice.  
  
The human looked back at her and mouthed, "Do you have a plan?"  
  
"Trust me..." came a hissing reply, which shortly transformed into a scream.  
  
The water girl dropped to the ground, shrieking like a stuck swine and writhing upon the flagstones. Every eye stared at her, horrified. Her ghastly wailing continued for what seemed like an age until something even stranger began to happen.  
  
Lynden's human features faded into a smooth puddle, her screaming becoming a muffled, rippling echo. Then the pool of water started to divide at the middle to form two equal puddles. It continued to separate until there were ten circles of water laid out on the stone. To the watchers' amazement they sprang up into smaller versions of the liquid girl herself.  
  
The goblin guards regarded the Lyndens with uncertainty, some sniggering or scoffing amidst the gasps and confused grunts. Lizards became unsettled, shifting from foot to foot in agitation. All at once, the water children bellowed a war cry and charged at the front line of goblins. At the last moment, they dove to the ground and passed beneath the lizard creatures' feet causing them to slip and slide all over the place. Seeing that the formation was broken, though it had been dishevelled to start with, Sarah clambered onto Ludo's back and nodded at Pterelas. The beast and the dragon charged through the remainder of the rabble and careered along the crooked streets of the city.  
  
Ludo swiped out at lingering livestock as he ran on all fours, bumping into the sides of ratty cottages, avoiding showers of household junk from the upper windows and stumbling upon the cobbles. Sarah kept one arm hooked about his great neck and snatched a spear from a confused guard who had just stepped out from his home. As they ground to a halt in the clearing outside the castle gates, Sarah hailed Lynden. Having rejoined into the one girl, she was back to her normal height.   
  
The water girl smiled.  
  
"Lynden, that was incredible..." Sarah said, shaking her head in admiration. "Did it hurt?"  
  
"Nah," her friend answered. "Just thought the noise would confuse them. The only thing that bothered me was the thought that I might not co-operate with myself." She grinned.  
  
Their moment of congratulating was interrupted with a sudden boom.  
  
"Look out!" Pterelas roared.  
  
The others ducked as the rock dragon's tail swished out to counter the flight of a rather peculiar missile. It ricocheted with an anguished shriek and embedded into the castle wall. The companions whirled to see a firing squad of goblins already hastening to reload a squat, copper machine supported on a wheelbase. Three separate regiments of goblins appeared from every side, leaving the only alternative to enter the gates.  
  
Sarah ran to the doors, stopping at a voice overhead.  
  
"Wait, Sarah!" the Goblin King called from the tower. He held Sir Didymus out of the window by the scruff of his neck. "You don't want to do something foolish."  
  
The whole courtyard remained silent and still as all eyes stared up at the struggling creature that dangled precariously above them. A gasp rippled through the crowd, seeing Didymus latch around the arm of his captor and sink his teeth into the fabric of the gloved hand. Jareth snarled in pain, releasing on instinct. A vast shadow fell across the onlookers and swooped beneath the tower in time to collect the plummeting fox.  
  
Pterelas reeled; his awesome wings splayed out, and circled the tower with Sir Didymus astride his granite shoulder blades. He buffeted the side of the turret with his tail, forcing the Goblin King to grip the edges of the window as the tower shuddered about him.  
  
"Still alive, Pterelas?" Jareth roared. "I would've thought you'd worn away by now."  
  
The tower rocked again under the dragon's onslaught.  
  
"There's life in me yet, boy. It was working for you that made me old before my time!"  
  
Sarah watched in horror, stone chippings raining into the courtyard. Remembering her mission, she strained open the castle doors, immediately attracting the attention of the previously distracted guards.  
  
"Charge!"  
  
The goblins surged forwards, meeting with the flat surface of the gate, having failed to stop the grounded companions from getting inside. They battered at the doors but they were held fast by Ludo on the other side.  
  
Pterelas ceased his attack on the tower and dove for the army trapped outside their own castle, knocking several nipper sticks out of metal gauntlets, which resulted in a myriad of agonised cries.  
  
"Good sir, didst thou say that you worked for yon fiend?" Sir Didymus shouted towards the dragon's head.  
  
"Regrettably, yes," came the bellowing reply. "We were once even friends."  
  
Didymus' one eye widened.  
  
"Well, I never! I hope thou dost not mind if I dost think it utter codswallop?"  
  
"Not at all, sir knight, but were you not yourself employed by this 'fiend' to defend the bog bridge?"  
  
"Ah," said Sir Didymus. "A valid point, sir." 


	16. Time reordered

Chapter XVI  
  
(Short one here, I will try to do some more tomorrow! *winces*)  
  
Sarah looked back from the bottom of the stairs at her two friends, the water girl and the beast. The quietude in the castle was uncomfortable, even with the dull crashes of goblin artillery resounding in the city outside. Lynden returned her solemn stare, personally unable to aid Ludo's barricade.  
  
"Are you sure I can't-," she began.  
  
"No," Sarah said firmly, her green eyes glistening sadly. "I need to do the next part by myself."  
  
She hated hearing herself speak such similar words to those of years before, that same feeling of dread with a hint of confidence stirring in the pit of her stomach. She could beat him again. The Labyrinth - a piece of cake.  
  
Lynden nodded but spoke again as her friend started up the stairs.  
  
"Sarah...if you-."  
  
"I'll call."  
  
Once again, Sarah ran into the throne room of the Goblin King, and once again it was empty. The chains draping from one of the walls were vacant, the walls were dustier and grimier than ever, every corner clogged with cobwebs, and she noticed a single chandelier that reminded her of what she knew only to be a dream. The indentation in the floor made itself familiar as the place her brother had sat for almost thirteen hours.  
  
She took the passageway to the left and darted up the steps to what she presumed to be the Escher room of her past. However, there were no staircases here.   
  
Two narrow walkways curved out from the ledge on which she stood, leading to a golden oval platform, unsupported above an expanse of oblivion. The room mimicked the shape of the Goblin King's pendant and Sarah could make out a huddled figure crouched in the centre of the vast platform as though it were the jewel. She trod carefully along one of the arcing paths, taking care not to look down into the dizzying abyss. When she reached the crumpled silhouette, she half-expected something nasty to spring at her. Instead she was confronted with the face of a trembling old man.  
  
"S-Sarah?"  
  
"Hoggle? Is that you?"  
  
The ancient human was manacled to the floor by one wrist, the same tattered purple robes she had seen in the Pools of Seeing clung wretchedly to his frail form.  
  
"Sarah, you's shouldn't be here-," he started as his friend threw her arms about him.  
  
"Oh Hoggle, what has he done to you?"  
  
The ex-dwarf pushed her away gently and lowered his voice to a whisper.  
  
"You's 'ave to leave me 'ere! It's not safe. Jareth...'e's..."  
  
"Jareth's what?"  
  
Hoggle sighed.  
  
"'E ain't right in the 'ead. An' I don' mean 'is usual kid-stealin' neither. You, you's don' know what 'e's become," he said, his tone distressed.  
  
Sarah thought back to the fearsome scorpion hovering before her eyes.  
  
"He won't hurt me," she whispered, more to reassure herself than anyone.  
  
"Sarah, how long have you been trying to find me?"  
  
As she attempted to wrench his chain from the floor, she replied, "A day or so."  
  
Hoggle shook his head wearily.  
  
"It's been a lot longer fer Jareth." He took hold of her hand to gain her full attention. "'E's watched you run this maze fer almost a year." Sarah's face creased in confusion. "Fer everyone else, time 'as continued as normal, but Jareth quickened 'is own so that 'e'd see the world like it was a picture. Whenever 'e pleased, 'e'd be sat watchin' you's in them crystals." Hoggle shifted away from her as though his words brought discomfort. "Not a bat of yer eyelashes'd 'ave gone unnoticed."  
  
Sarah had very little colour left in her cheeks.  
  
"But why?" she asked her old friend, with a sense of exhaustion.  
  
"'E's driven 'isself mad. You's needs to get out of the Underground, Sarah, 's best fer all of us if ye do. Don' worry about me. 'E only 'urts hisself anyways." Hoggle glanced up at her glumly. "So far."  
  
"If you think for one second I'm about to leave you here-," Sarah uttered sternly until she heard a sound behind her.  
  
She spun on her heel to face whatever was traversing the walkway and let out a cry of surprise.  
  
"You!"  
  
"Eh?"  
  
"Woo, woo, woo!" 


	17. The wise man returns

(Oops...ok I know I said "tomorrow" which now constitutes as "next week". Here's the next bit. Hope you all had a great Easter. Thanks to applekrisp14, yes splendidly is a word :D and thanks especially to ac-bworm for telling me to allow anonymous reviews. I dunno why I ticked the box in the first place! Again, a thank you to all you wonderful reviewers! I'm trying to get at least 100!!! *hints*)  
  
Chapter XVII  
  
The wise man stared at Sarah for quite some time from his position on the narrow bridge. His familiar animated hat clicked its beak and cocked its head as it studied the human armed with a goblin spear.  
  
"The young girl!" he said eventually.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked with impatience, noticing the old man continued to carry his wooden 'contribution box', just visible beneath his overgrown beard.  
  
"Well..." the wise man started, a start that seemed to drag on for an unbearable length of time. "I was looking for-."  
  
"Anadda pretty lady to cheat outta shiny objects," interrupted the bird-hat.  
  
"I've told you time and time again," the con wise man scolded. "You always butt in and talk and-."  
  
Sarah's tolerance snapped.  
  
"Both of you, shut up!" she yelled, the blood symbol on her face gleaming freshly.  
  
Man and hat silenced. The former looked at her in surprise, the latter turned away haughtily.  
  
"Obviously Señorita does not want her ring back," the bird-hat muttered.  
  
"I really don't have time for this," said Sarah. "If you could be a little more helpful than before, it would be so much easier for all of us." Somehow she doubted this.  
  
"Now see here-."  
  
"Do you want your ring back or not?" the bird-hat called above the old man's attempt as Sarah tried to lever Hoggle's chain from the ground with her spear-point. "We seenk we should give eet back, after all, you won de Labyrinth." Sarah continued to ignore it. "Such a pity."  
  
She paused.  
  
"What did you say?"  
  
"I said eet would be a pity if you didn't want eet back. Eet is pretty ring, yes?" answered the bird-hat, which proceeded to lean down and chirrup something in the old man's ear. "If not your ring, maybe Señorita would like thees..."  
  
Something clattered to the floor behind her and rolled past her feet.  
  
"Oh no," she breathed.  
  
Sarah watched the crystal glide across the platform, away from her and Hoggle, and into the hands of a lone goblin. The curious creature's eyes glittered malignly before he gave a sneeze and sent the glass orb exploding in a shower of glitter. As the sparkling particles rained down, they revealed a multitude crouched around the room, their tiny green hands all bearing crooked weapons.  
  
Sarah knew that the wise man and his hat would not be there when she turned. She knew now that it had been the leader of this ambush playing a disguise. She knew that he was staring right into the back of her skull. What she did *not* know was the visible deterioration in his usually immaculate presence.  
  
"Enough now, Sarah. The game is finished."  
  
Finally, she turned to face him, and was taken aback. The Goblin King was pale and gaunt, his cloak torn and ragged, making the illusion of the raven old and decrepit. His wild hair, nicotine-toned, covered one side of his face like latticed straw.  
  
"You started it," Sarah replied quietly and with a distant light of humour.  
  
Jareth bowed his head slightly, a shiver running from his shoulders to the centre of his spine, bestial to the last essence of his sanity.  
  
"And now you must forfeit," he said. "You will do so because you are outnumbered and you will-."  
  
"You can't keep me here, Jareth," Sarah announced calmly, sending a chilling wave of whispers amongst the goblin horde as she dared to interrupt their king. Even he faltered in his thoughts to approach her, her strength paralysing his nerves. "This game ends when I choose it to."  
  
The Goblin King regained his self-control and stepped onto the great platform, closing and opening his eyes when a strand of his hair stung a glistening line of blood at his cheek.  
  
"Does Sarah have a plan?" he asked, showing no reaction to her obvious concern.  
  
Sarah gripped her spear and moved closer to her enchained friend.  
  
"Sarah does," she answered, then raised her voice. "Now!" 


	18. The strike of thirteen

(Hey again guys, I've been waiting to type this one for ages. All my others were done on paper first, but this is straight onto the computer, so if you notice any differences at all, that'll be why! Cheers for all your support xxx)  
  
Chapter XVIII  
  
Jareth and his subjects whirled as an enraged beast charged into the room, pursued by the other half of the goblin army. Amidst the stampede, Lynden and Sir Didymus joined the mass of creatures to pour across the bridges to the platform. The goblins that had already been in the room hesitated at the sight of Ludo's vertically jutting fangs but upon seeing their master's stern glare, they rushed to confront him.  
  
A high-pitched voice screeched out, "Attack!" and the floor was swamped.  
  
Sarah lost Hoggle within the fray, having heard his chain snap but nothing more. He may have been granted human form but he was still a little man, making it hopeless beneath the sea of armoured green. She ducked, allowing a self-propelled brute to soar over her head and crash into a heap of guards. Swishing the length of her spear about her, she was able to sweep those that circled off their feet, giving her time to scan the melee. Ludo was towering above the goblins, hurling them left, right and centre and roaring mutely when they clambered upon his back. At that particular moment he shook his head, swinging the plaits of his mane in a wide arc, sending a hanger-on hurtling into the guard that Didymus was battling.  
  
"Many thanks, brother!" called the fox-creature as the goblins along one of the bridges toppled like dominoes.  
  
A guard lifted his visor and leapt at Sarah, biting into her arm. She cried with pain and rage and reached into its helmet to grab its nose, wrenching the teeth from her skin. She pulled it as far as she could and slammed the visor down, dropping the miserable creature at the same time. She clenched her jaw and searched for Lynden - a near impossible task. When she had decided to give up in vain she noticed a glimmer of distorted air at the back of the room where the platform met wall, slightly raised compared with the rest. Running forwards to get a better view and whacking a trio of goblins along the way, she observed Jareth standing opposite the water girl in what looked like a standoff. Words were being spoken but she couldn't hear.  
  
"You can't have her, Jareth," the water child hissed, her liquid strands of hair shimmering. "Just as you can't have me."  
  
The Goblin King sneered for the first time, never having been ill-favoured enough to do so before.  
  
"I never wanted you. *No one * ever wanted you, brat. Your family wished you away because they hated you and now I have to put up with your insatiable whining."  
  
"Liar! I'll make you pay for every life you ever stole!" Lynden growled, advancing.  
  
"I stole nothing," Jareth seethed, the blue shades around his eyes darkening. "The blame rests upon them, girl, on people like you. Mortals get what they ask and what they deserve. They are fools! They waste my time with this eternal duty I am bound to."  
  
"Then let me relieve you of it!"   
  
Sarah watched from the frenzy of Underground creatures as her friend threw herself upon Jareth, knocking him down. Lynden was latched around him, invisible, saturating his clothes, smothering his face. The Goblin King writhed and rolled at the height of the room, his lips moving but not making words. //He's drowning//, she thought with horror.   
  
The struggle ended and Lynden flew back from the foe that spluttered and coughed at her feet. A shape drifted inside her translucent body, a piece of metal and a gemstone strung with cord - Jareth's pendant. Silence filled the platform. Every goblin stayed its hands and looked around in a daze, starting to mill around as though nothing had happened. As though they had no orders. A disgruntled shriek emitted from one unfortunate who had been teetering on the brink of the bridge, overbalanced by his lack of purpose.  
  
The scrape of Jareth's boots as he got to his feet scored the quietness like a rusty saw. He regarded the water girl with a chilling stare and made to turn his back on her. His cloak flicked out and a spherical blur rolled into his palm. He doubled back and plunged his hand into her heart, leaving behind a floating glass orb.   
  
Lynden peered down at the crystal inhabiting her body. It gave her long enough to display an expression of surprise before a surge of cold energy enveloped her from the inside out, a frozen statue. Jareth narrowed his eyes and smiled grimly. His gloved fingers curled into a fist and slammed into his pendant's prison. The water girl shattered.  
  
"Lynden!" Sarah screamed.  
  
She bolted through the crowd of bickering creatures and up the few steps to the raised part of the platform where she could see the Goblin King reaching slowly for his heirloom. A flicker of realisation kindled in Sarah's mind. Thinking fast, she dove for the pendant and clasped it in her palm, immediately dashing back across the room. His curses rang in her ears; she felt her heart as if it were pulsing in her throat. She shrieked as he materialised at the far end of the bridge, blocking her only escape. She stopped at the edge of the platform, peering down into the endless chasm beneath.  
  
"It's over, Sarah. Give it back and no one else will get hurt," she heard his voice shiver every atom.  
  
She uncurled her hand and examined the swirling colours at the heart of the jewel. Then she slipped the loop of cord over her head and let the pendant hang around her neck.  
  
"I wish the spell to be undone," she whispered then she took in a breath and leapt into the abyss.   
  
Jareth was unprepared this time, his conjuring too slow. No sooner had a crystal appeared in his palm, she had vanished into the dark. For a moment he stood awkwardly, unable to decide on his course of action. Until he noticed something move in the chasm. A grey entity meandered through the blackness, a sound like violent winds rumbling in the depths.  
  
Ludo, Sir Didymus and a few curious guards joined the king in leaping back from the edge as the formidable mass of Pterelas burst from the gloom with Sarah clinging onto his pinnacled back, diving once more beneath the bridge with the aid of his majestic, black wings. Jareth tossed his waiting crystal into oblivion and jumped after it, disappearing from sight.  
  
Sarah glanced back from her position upon the rock dragon and spread her arms out in a hug of sorts.  
  
"Nice timing," she called over the rush of wind that dried her tear-stricken eyes.  
  
"Don't thank me yet," Pterelas bellowed back. "I sense something is not-."  
  
A hideous strangled screeching cut off his words. Sarah turned once more, this time to see the same gleaming eyes she had encountered when she had been required to rebuild this very castle. The four-headed Polydragon snapped at the rock dragon's tail as it emerged out of the darkness with its master perched where the necks met, the dim scarlet scales blazing as though they were aflame.  
  
Pterelas veered off and swung his granite tail, smashing the teeth of one of the gaping jaws, unable to outrun the younger fire-lizard. He dropped deeper, warning his rider of his every move. Still the larger monster gained, drawing alongside the old monster, bashing him in his flanks. Sarah lost her grip and rolled across the breadth of his wing, which curled to protect her.  
  
The Polydragon was now equal to Pterelas' speed but did not attack, merely sending a few warning snaps. The Goblin King stood, needing little effort to control his own gravity. He leaned in as close as possible and stepped onto the rock dragon's back.  
  
Pterelas roared in anger, unable to shake off his unwanted passenger for fear of losing Sarah. He reeled again, ensuring she was secure but trying to catch the hijacker off guard. Sarah crawled forwards, gripping the edge of the wing and reaching for her friend's neck but to no avail. The familiar pair of boots entered her frame of vision.  
  
"Give me your hand, Sarah."  
  
She ignored the voice, holding on for dear life, her eyes closed against the whipping draught.  
  
"Don't be foolish," Jareth growled. He knelt down and snatched hold of her arm, hauling her to safety. "Now, give me my pendant."  
  
Sarah shoved him back and clumsily got to her feet upon the high-speed dragon.  
  
"Sarah, don't make me have to take it from you," Jareth warned, his footing as natural as ever.  
  
She fell backwards and refused his help. She remained seated, leaning back on her hands.  
  
"You'll have to kill me first!" she blurted.  
  
The Goblin King raised his hand in mid-strike but he hesitated. A wave of emotion washed over him, banishing the shadows and removing the masked glaze that had made his eyes cold. Sheer, unadulterated pain and horror reflected upon his once again beautiful face, awoken from his world of dark fantasies and faced with a harsh reality.  
  
"Sarah, I-."  
  
He had not been forewarned. The impact of stone swept him from where he stood as Pterelas passed beneath the bridge, casting him into the black. Sarah cried out in anguish, and tore the pendant from her neck, hurling it after him. All the remaining friends gazed solemnly into the eerie abyss for signs of life, whether it was deserved or not.   
  
The faint flapping of wings served to ease Sarah's heart. A bright white owl fluttered up but collided with the unperceived fury of the starving, four-headed monstrosity. One of the Polydragon's snouts clamped onto the bird's wing and bit deep, tugging against the flurry of feathers. Finally the owl tore itself loose and landed brokenly in the centre of the floor. Its torment was not yet ended; the excitable gathering of goblins set upon the bird, ripping and poking, unaware of the bloodshed they caused.   
  
Finally it was over. The goblin crowd parted with a series of gasps at the sight of their master lying pale and still, the symbol of their obedience glimmering at his chest.   
  
Hoggle, as he had always been known, once again a dwarf, stepped into the circle and shook his head wearily.  
  
"At least he got 'is pendant," he said grimly.  
  
Sarah came running across the floor, having dismounted from Pterelas, a look beyond worry blanching her cheeks.  
  
"Hoggle, I...he...is he okay?" she stammered.  
  
The dwarf retreated from the dumbstruck creatures and took her by the hand. He motioned to Ludo to help as he led her across the bridge to the doorway.  
  
"Where are we going?" Sarah asked wearily.  
  
"*We* isn't goin anywheres. You is goin' where you's belong," Hoggle replied gently as they walked into the throne room.  
  
The dwarf trotted over to a section of the wall that was covered in cobwebs. With a deft brush of his hand, he cleared the debris and revealed the worn, wooden surface of the old thirteen-hour clock. He stood on his tiptoes and turned the hands until just before the last hour then he turned to his human friend.  
  
"G'bye Sarah," he said with a sniff.  
  
"Goodbye Hoggle."  
  
"Bye Sehwah."  
  
Sarah wiped a tear after she'd hugged the dwarf, overwhelmed with grief. The sound of Ludo's returned voice warmed her soul.  
  
"Goodbye Ludo. Tell the others I said goodbye. I'll miss-."  
  
And the clock struck thirteen. 


	19. Transfiguration

(Apologies aren't enough and the list of reasons why I didn't get around to finishing are pointless and endless so...let's continue...)  
  
Chapter XIX  
  
Sarah had fallen asleep, her head resting upon her dressing table. Her other self slept opposite her in that backwards world, yet such a similar one...where both heroines had beat their fists against the sides of the mirror and begged for an answer. As one stirred, the reflection shimmered away and an old face watched with sympathy.  
  
"Sarah, are you's awake?"  
  
The young woman groaned sleepily and pushed back her hair as she sat up, her hands stopping at her ears at the sight of her friend. He stood clearly as though he were in the room with her but she knew that if she turned he would not be there. She gasped, at once becoming flustered.   
  
"Hoggle! Oh, thank God! I thought I'd never see you again..." She trailed off. "Hoggle, what's wrong?"  
  
The dwarf sighed deeply.  
  
"Nuttin' Sarah," he mumbled. "We're fine as always. You's wouldn't be expectin' any less."  
  
"What about Lynden? She-."  
  
"Melted."  
  
"Melted!" Sarah cried out in alarm, immediately hushing herself after hearing the door to Toby's room open. She resumed at a whisper when she heard it close again. "Melted? Then she's not-."  
  
"No. As far as we's can tell, all we's needs to do is wait. Ludo's been watchin' what's there. She ain't dead. Didymus thinks she'll be pulling together pretty soon."  
  
His friend exhaled in relief.  
  
"That's...great. There's no word for it," she smiled wearily. She paused before adding, "And Jareth?"  
  
This time the dwarf fell silent.  
  
"Hoggle?" Sarah asked meekly. "He's okay, right?"  
  
"Sarah, he-."  
  
"What?"  
  
Hoggle closed his eyes briefly and gritted his teeth.  
  
"He was never any good to you's. There ain't no tellin' what he'd've done if e'd 'ad 'is way wid the world." The old dwarf tried to suppress the anger from spilling out. "'E deserved what 'e got! 'E should never've tried to 'urt you's!"  
  
"Let me see him."  
  
"Sarah, there's nothing we could-."  
  
"Let me see him!" she screamed suddenly, having risen from her seat and struck the table with the base of her palms.  
  
Hoggle nodded and replied, "Very well. If it's what you's wish."  
  
The old dwarf stepped aside so that he was no longer visible within the mirror's frame. Sarah was left now with what the glass portrayed, a sight so harsh that her breath feared to escape her lips.   
  
The Goblin King lay with the grace of a sleeping prince, his face ashen, eyes staring open but unseeing. His tattered, regal cloak draped his still form, cradling the pendant that nestled on his breastbone, the light long since faded from its centre. The girl he loved held a hand to her heart as though she thought it would burst, silent tears rolling down her roseate cheeks. She pleaded for her gaze to be returned, flitting between his eyes, his left - brown, the right - blue...  
  
Unbeknown to her, the crystal ornament she had set upon her desk some inches away began to crawl.  
  
Sarah frowned suddenly. Her mind was unclear from grief but something seemed too surreal. His face, she noticed whilst wiping away tears, was not right. Those eyes, they were - wrong. She knew, from looking into them upon so many frightful yet thrilling occasions, the precise distinction. For his left eye to look brown, which she was certain it wasn't, that would mean she was not looking at him at all...but in fact...  
  
"A reflection," she breathed. "No...it can't be..."  
  
Jareth faded from the mirror and Sarah's view was plunged into darkness. She turned slowly on her stool, drowning in hope. Her hand clamped across her mouth to stifle the choking noise that threatened. The Goblin King stood in the centre of her room with his insatiable aura that sought to bend all matter to its will.  
  
"Jareth!"  
  
Sarah forgot for the moment everything she had ever vowed and leapt up, throwing her arms about the ruler of the Underground and burying her head into his swathes of black. Even though the gesture was not returned, there was some sense of submission, a minute glint of compassion within him. He spoke softly.  
  
"Sarah."  
  
There was no reply from the girl he embraced, a simple tightening of her grip against his cloak.  
  
"Sarah..." he repeated more sternly.  
  
"Hmm?" came the answer eventually.  
  
"If you would be so kind as to remove your foot..." he whispered icily.  
  
The two of them glanced down at where Sarah's shoe trapped the hem of his cloak. The Goblin King expected her to move without question, as a matter of instinct but to his surprise, she remained resolute as always. Her angelic face lifted to search his own when she responded.  
  
"Or you'll what?" she asked with bittersweet amusement. " 'Be forced to suspend me head first over your bog?'" She imitated his crisp British.  
  
Jareth did not so much as blink.  
  
"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of sexual abuse."  
  
The young woman exploded into laughter then bit her tongue when she saw that the supposed joker was not sharing her glee. She watched helplessly as the Goblin King's gloves clamped around her waist, lifted her from the floor and hurled her onto her bed. Sarah froze in terror and opened her mouth to scream. In the same instant, when Jareth launched towards her and the sound of her parents' key in the front door echoed from below, she snapped her eyes shut tight.  
  
When Sarah opened them again, she was met with the predatory stare of a white owl perched upon her knee. Her breath caught inside her lungs when the chilling, autumn voice resonated softly around her walls.  
  
"Perhaps some other time then..."  
  
The owl emitted an eerie hoot, applied a slight pressure to her skin with its talons and then took off. Snatching the creeping scorpion from the desk, it passed into the mirror's molten silver surface and shattered the ambience of her room with a shocking silence. 


	20. The beginning

(Hey guys, you've all been fantastic. This is kind of the epilogue to the story. I can't answer all of your questions since either I don't know them or I'm just keeping up the suspense :p Hopefully I'll have internet access in university, otherwise I'll have to write the next - yes there is another one - at uni and come back at breaks to type up the chapters!)  
  
Chapter XX  
  
Once upon a time there was a castle. It was the most fantastic and beautiful castle in the land. It was the_ only_ castle in the land. Towering yet seemingly crouched like some waiting predator, this abode stood in the midst of a maze so intricately designed and laced with magical properties that it could be described as a _labyrinth_. High above the twisting walls and paths was a tower, inside of which sat a faerie king, surrounded by his loyal subjects.   
  
This king, with his blond shock of hair; pursed sulking lips and a dark cloak that glittered with malice, held within the crooks of his arms two cloth bundles that rocked with the gentle movements of his elbows. His strikingly different eyes gazed into a crystal that hovered before his throne and he watched. The king watched, and he waited, unperturbed by the girl in the crystal running hopelessly through his kingdom - the hours on the thirteen-numbered clock not in her favour.  
  
A goblin subject careered through the air and snatched the orb much to the horror of its companions. But the Goblin King did not break from his trance and allowed the wretched creatures to play a dangerous ball game. For the legacy had to continue. He dreamt awake, regardless of the twins in his grasp, of an owl upon a young woman's window-ledge. And the owl watched the man who trespassed her bedroom. Reflected in its eyes - the passions of lust and perhaps more in the hearts of the young and the spiritually ancient.  
  
The bird hooted.  
  
"A promise, dear girl, one way or another...should you need us..." Jareth whispered.  
  
_I'll call..._


End file.
